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Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #315 EJET. Neste episódio conversamos com Bruno de Godoy (Gerente de Frotas EJET), João Marinheiro (Gerente de Flight Standards) e Mirella Zambelli (Coordenadora de Flight Standards EJET) sobre as atualizações recentes no procedimento SETO na frota EJET. Abordamos as principais questões envolvendo o Single Engine Taxi-Out do E2 e a importância da correta aplicação do OEB 30 para otimização e eficiência em nossas operações. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

Summer rewind: Ontario's electricity sector is evolving, as the province navigates the transition to cleaner energy amidst rising demand. In thinkenergy episode 135, we explore the grid's structure and key players, highlighting the crucial role of distributors (Local Distribution Companies or LDCs) in facilitating this transition. Guest Teresa Sarkesian, President and CEO of the Electricity Distributors Association (EDA), sheds light on LDCs' frontline efforts and contributions shaping the energy landscape. Related links   Teresa Sarkesian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-sarkesian-53898613/   Electricity Distributors Association: https://www.eda-on.ca/  Green Button information: https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/green-button  Electrification and energy transition panel report: https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontarios-clean-energy-opportunity-report-electrification-and-energy-transition-panel  Ontario Electricity Support Program: https://ontarioelectricitysupport.ca/  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en     To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod     Trevor Freeman Hey everyone. Well, it's officially summer, and the think energy team is taking a break to recharge over the next two months, but also to plan our content for the fall. So stay tuned for some great episodes in the fall. Not to worry, though, we still have our summer rewind to keep you engaged. This is where we pick out some of the great past episodes that we've done and repost them. So whether you're lucky enough to be sitting on a dock or going on a road trip or if you're just keeping up with your commute through the summer, it's a great time to revisit our past content. You will hear past episodes from my predecessor and the host chair, Dan Sagan, as well as a couple of mine from the past few months, and you're welcome to check out your own favorite past episodes as well. Wherever you get your podcasts. We hope you have an amazing summer, and we'll be back with new content in September, and until then, happy listening.   Trevor Freeman  0:07   Hi, welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast-changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the frontlines of the energy transition. Join me Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and even up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you've got thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics that we should cover, we'd love to hear from you. Please reach out to us, at think energy at hydro ottawa.com Hi, everyone, welcome back. Now it's no secret that Ontario's electricity sector is transforming rapidly as it moves to both decarbonize the grid itself, you know, we have a very clean grid in Ontario, but it's not totally carbon free. And to support the growing demand for electricity as our customers across the province, take steps to electrify and change how they use energy. The show is all about exploring those changes, among other things, and today is no different. But before we dive into our conversation today, I think it would be helpful for me to spend just a few quick minutes on some basics about how our electricity grid is structured in Ontario, and who some of the key players are. Now I know some of our listeners will know this already, but it can be hard to keep track of all those key players. And Ontario's structure is a little different than some of the neighboring jurisdictions no two jurisdictions are exactly alike. So, a refresher is never a bad thing. Now the most basic description is that electricity is largely generated at central generation facilities. So, think nuclear power plants are your electric generating stations, some gas fired generating stations and large-scale wind and solar installations. We call these entities generators simple as that. That electricity is then transmitted across the province in an interconnected grid of high voltage transmission lines, which also connect to other jurisdictions such as neighboring provinces and states, and Ontario, Hydro One runs the transmission network. Now you've probably seen this transmission network. These would be the large metal towers that you see out in the middle of a field when you're driving along the highway or in rural areas that have electricity wires strung way up high in the air. The last stage before it gets to the end user is called distribution. So, this is where electricity is taken from those high voltage lines stepped down to a usable voltage for residential and commercial customers via transformers and substations, and then distributed over a network of overhead and underground wires, then these would be the wires that you would see at the top of those wooden or composite poles that are along the side of the road in your neighborhood. The entities that run this distribution part are called distributors, again, simple as that. So, there's a few other key players that are worth mentioning here. Energy Policy is primarily the jurisdiction of the provincial government, who sets the general direction and associated rules and regulations accordingly. The Ontario Energy Board or OEB is the regulatory body who governs what all those other players do and enacts the government mandate. And finally, at least for today's purposes, we have the system operator. It's called The Independent Electricity System Operator in Ontario, or IESO, who runs the system. So, if you're in Windsor, Ontario, or Ottawa, or North Bay, and you want to turn on your air conditioner, or plug your EV in to charge, the IESO is responsible for making sure there's enough power on the grid to handle that load. So, I hope everyone is still with me and feel free to pause and do some jumping jacks if that was a lot to take in. Our conversation today is going to be focused on the role of the distributor. So, for full disclosure, as you know, I work for hydro Ottawa who is one of those distributors, we serve most electricity customers in the City of Ottawa, and the neighboring village of Casselman and in Ontario, you will often hear distributors referred to as local distribution companies or LDCs. So forgive me if I slip into that acronym throughout the conversation today, that's really just the sort of common name that we refer to those distributors as. But I'll try to mix it up and make sure that, that I'm explaining that acronym throughout as well. So the distributor is really the front line, the customer facing entity of the entire electricity system. If you are an electricity customer, and you think about the electricity system, you are probably thinking about your distributor. Chances are you get your bill from a distributor, even though for most customers, most of what you pay on that bill doesn't actually go to the LDC. Some of it stays with your local distribution company, but most of it goes to the transmitter to the generator, to the IESO etc. When the power goes out, it's probably your LDC that you call and it's your LDC that will give you a restoration time. Sometimes outages are caused by issues up the line, so to speak in the transmission portion of the grid. But often the issue is a localized one. And it's your LDC that is identifying the problem and fixing it, whether that means rolling a truck to string new cable, or performing switching to work around the problem. And finally, it's your LDC that is really on the frontlines of the energy transition. While all parts of the grid must then have started to change, the LDCs are really working hand in hand with our customers to identify where and how fast and new demand is needed to bridge that gap between customers and policymakers to enable more and more renewable generation. And also to determine what new technologies or programs we need to pilot and scale up. And it's really the LDCs that are driving change in the way that electricity is managed at the individual customer level moving forward. So to help us make some sense of this, I'm happy to have Teresa Sarkesian on the show today. Teresa is the president and CEO of the electricity Distributors Association, which is a role that she's held since 2016. This is actually Teresa second time on the show the first being back in December 2021. So we're happy to have Teresa back, Teresa, welcome back to the show.   Teresa Sarkesian  6:23   Thanks so much, Trevor. I'm really delighted to be back.    Trevor Freeman  6:27   Yeah, we're glad to have you. So, like I said, you were back on our show in 2021. I don't know if it's because of how COVID has changed our lives or if this is just the way things go. But sometimes, you know, weeks seem like years. So 2021 is a long time ago. Let's start by refreshing our listeners on the role and mandate of the electricity Distributors Association.   Teresa Sarkesian  6:49   Sure thing so the electricity Distributors Association, or the EDA our little acronym represents Ontario's public and private electric utilities that distribute electricity to 5.4 million homes, businesses and institutional customers across the province. And I should note that those 5.4 million customers really refers to build accounts so you have families that are behind a build account. So effectively the millions and millions of Ontarians and businesses that operate and live here are customers of our utilities. And as you know our members are on the front lines of power, and have developed a strong trust with their customers by providing safe, reliable and affordable service for over 100 years. The EDA itself provides analysis and networking and advocacy for our members to ensure that the energy policy direction and framework in Ontario is fair and balanced, supporting the financial viability of utilities to deliver service and ensuring affordability for customers. And long term, we are looking to ensure that our local distribution company members can become the premier energy solution providers to their customers, and that they're able to provide the value-added services that customers are already expecting from them but are going to grow with the energy transformation and electrification in the future.    Trevor Freeman  8:09   Yeah, it's kind of like I said, when people think about the electricity sector, they're probably thinking about their distributor. And the EDA is kind of that common voice for those distribution companies. So, you first joined the EDA back in 2009, and have been the president and CEO since 2016. So, we'll look ahead and talk about the future in a minute. But before we do that, tell us about how things have changed so far during your tenure. How are things different from 2009 When you first joined the organization?   Teresa Sarkesian  8:40   Yeah, and you know, this is almost like perfect timing, Trevor, because I've been at the association now for 15 years, I'm just marking my 15-year anniversary. So, feels really apropos to kind of reflect and look back. So, I want to break down my answer into two parts. So, I'm going to talk to you about some, I guess, just my own personal observations about the electricity system at large. And then I'm going to talk more about the changes in distribution. But some of the changes that I thought were really quite significant and profound, sort of when I joined the industry in 2009, I joined at a time when there was the Green Energy Act, and the province was looking to connect all kinds of renewable energy generation to the electricity grid. So that was fairly significant. Another thing that was happening with the province is that they closed down coal fired generation. That was pretty massive. In fact, I think, at the time, it was the largest kind of carbon reduction initiative in North America. And I think even to this date today, I think it still is something that Ontario really has to be proud of. Another thing that you know, at the time, I think that was you know, fairly significant in 2015 is just the expectation of what the demand would be. What was interesting, sort of like the past for 15 years, the demand from customers for electricity was actually flat or declining. And that's all changed. Now. 15 years later, we're, we're now forecasting, massive increases in in demand of energy, which could potentially be doubling in the future. And the other point I'd like to make is just the nuclear renaissance that we're having. I think when I joined the sector in 2009, I'll tell you, I think the public opinion of nuclear was actually quite low. And that's been completely turned around lots of geopolitical events around the world, I think, have driven that. And now that nuclear is having a huge Renaissance. And you're seeing, you know, lots of new investments in nuclear. And we're not talking about shutting down reactors anymore. We're talking about refurbishing and expanding. So those are some of the things that I've observed over the last 15 years that have really changed. And for local distribution companies, I think what I have seen is a growing expectation by both government and the regulators for electric utilities to do more to both support the grid reliability and meet growing expectation from customers. So, I started in the sector in 2009, it was right on the brink of implementation of smart meters, and time of use. And what was interesting is that was mandated, there were very few jurisdictions in the world that actually had mandated smart meters and time of use pricing. So again, Ontario is was one of the first. And so that was a big change for LDCs. To move from, you know, smart meters and having to bring in that technology and also support the technology of time of use. I did mention the Green Energy Act at the time, we suddenly had to connect 1000s and 1000s, of new solar and wind generation, as well. And that was all new. There were no protocols, there were no standards for that. So that was fairly significant as well. And when I kind of fast forward to I guess, more recently, there have been a lot of changes from government, I think they've really supported our industry, they understand the trust that we have, with our customers. And they've implemented, you know, a number of new changes in terms of rate structures, they've asked us to implement ultra low-rate pricing that can support overnight electric vehicle charging. And they've also asked us to introduce a green button digital platform that allows customers to download their energy data and share with third parties for you know, different assessments and tools for lowering energy costs. But it's all not, you know, unicorns and kittens, there's challenges to for our sector, grid resilience was, you know, not really, people talked about it in 2009, but not like they're talking about it now, because of climate change. And we are seeing more frequent storms, causing, you know, obviously, outages for the customer, and also significant damage to the distribution grid. And I know that hydro Ottawa has faced more than its fair share of very destructive storms over the past few years, we have Yes, I can't remember which Victoria Day weekend where we had, I didn't ever know how to say it the derecho or the derecho. So there, we weren't getting storms we've never even heard of before. And unfortunately, I think that is our new normal. So, grid resilience is something that we are very concerned about, and we need to make sure we've got the appropriate investments for that. So those are just a few of the highlights that, you know, when I came into the sector sort of things that were kind of ramping up, and then what's happening now, but I guess what I could say, the commonality is there's constant change in the sector. And what I'm seeing going forward is that change is going to be accelerated.    Trevor Freeman  13:40   Yeah, I mean, it's, it's fascinating to listen to you lay it all out like that. Thinking back to 15 years ago, it's hard to even remember, you know, not having smart meters, having meters that really just ticked forward and measured your consumption over the course of a month, and someone would come and read that. And, you know, having declining or even flat demand profiles that aren't increasing is so different from the world that we are in today. But I think what you said there at the end is really important. We are in our industry, an organization that knows about change, we're constantly changing, which helps us as we look forward into your point, we're going to see that level of change and the pace of change accelerate. So, I think that sets us up pretty well. So, let's start to look forward, then I know that the EDA is about to launch a new vision paper. So, we're going to dive into some of the details. But maybe let's start by kind of a high-level summary of what is the vision that you are trying to lay out with this paper?   Teresa Sarkesian  14:42   Okay, and no problem. So, I think what I want to start just give a little bit of background as to why we did this. We've done a couple of vision papers and implementation plans in the past. But you know, they were like seven, eight years ago and things have changed a lot even in Seven or eight years. So, what we've been seeing, obviously, I think the big change over the last few years has been the big focus on meeting Net Zero targets in 2050, that we are going to get to net zero in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions. Not only in Canada, but this is actually a bit of a global commitment, you know, for countries that have signed on to that objective. So, what happens when you set up, you know, those big audacious goals? You have all kinds of organizations and entities looking at how are we going to get there, how much it's going to cost? What do we need to do to get there? And so when we started reviewing some of these publications, both in Ontario, Canada, and actually in other jurisdictions, they were very good. They talked about what supply mix that we need the investment in transmission, but almost 100% of the papers, Trevor, if you can believe this, just neglected distribution, no one talked about distribution, they didn't talk about how distribution is going to have to change what the investments would be. And then we'll so we said it's going to be critical for us to identify the electric utility role and the energy transition, and how the sector will need to be grid ready to support electrification, economic development, grid resilience, and customer preferences. So we view that LDCs are going to be pivotal in enabling Ontario's low carbon economy, navigating the challenges posed by climate policies, electrification trends, and these evolving customer demands. And with Ontario's growing economy and the demands for housing intensify, LDCs must innovate to effectively meet these accelerating electricity needs and changing preferences. And right now, we've seen the ISO is predicting significant consumption growth from 144 terawatt hours in 2023, to 240 terawatt hours and 2050 not quite double, but it's getting close. And so this rapid growth demands urgent attention to adopt new strategies and to ensure that the local distribution companies can make the necessary investments in grid enhancements to expand the capacity and capability of the distribution system. So while reliability and affordability remain Paramount customers do expect additional value from their utility service. And, you know, we are seeing all sorts of things that are happening, you know, such as the need for swift electric vehicle charging installation, and other upgrades that will increase the electrical load. We see that LDCs are more frequently interacting with businesses that seek utility partners to achieve their energy management, sustainability and ESG goals. And in parallel, the LDC must prepare to respond to increase climate change induced extreme weather events. So recognizing the essential role of LDCs in the energy transition, we've worked in collaboration with industry experts to outline a vision of the role of utilities, so they can enable economic development, housing growth and electrification. And the report identifies urgent and practical steps that LDCs in partnership with the government, and its agencies must take in the near term to achieve the benefits of this transition. So what you'll see in the paper is recommendations related to the need for clear policy direction on regulatory frameworks to support LDCs in becoming grid ready, and with a continued focus on affordability and enabling a customer choice and opportunity. And we also discuss issues like workforce needs. And we also emphasize the role of human capital in enabling technological advancements. So that's very high level what it is, and I will get into it a bit more as we have our discussion further.   Trevor Freeman  18:41   Yeah, I think it's a good way to frame it of the entire sector is changing at all levels. But what you're really doing is laying out that vision that roadmap for the distributors, in particular, and I think that's great. Maybe like, Who is the audience for this paper? Who are you kind of directing this at?   Teresa Sarkesian  18:59   Well, we're still putting the crossing the T's and dotting the I's., but I think it's about 80 pages. So, it's not going to be for everyone, obviously, you know, government decision makers, government, policymakers, people that work in their regulatory agencies and our energy board, the Independent Electricity System Operator, we did try to make it accessible. There is an executive summary that's about two or three pages, which I think will be of great interest to a lot of people to read. And I think it gives a very kind of a high-level overview of what's in the document. So that's something that we're trying to do. And, you know, obviously our LTC members are an audience as well. They've been working with us hand in glove the last few months we've had extensive member meetings we had a board committee that helped steer this paper. But you know, ultimately, the paper is really focused on our customers because its customers and businesses that are driving a lot of this change for the future, whether it's businesses that are on their own journey on environmental, social and governance ESG objectives, and they're looking for more low carbon communities to invest in its customers who are very interested in EV charging, and maybe what the opportunity for the batteries can be to sell that storage back to the grid. It's, it's really the customers that are driving this change.    Trevor Freeman  20:31   Right Yeah, and I mean, the nature of this medium is I don't know who's out there listening. But I'd encourage, you know, all of our listeners, when this comes out, take a look at it and get some insight into kind of how the distributors role is laid out there. So let's dive into some of the details. You know, you outline obviously, some of the traditional roles and functions of the LDCs. So from maintaining, owning and maintaining the infrastructure, the poles and wires, and doing customer metering and billing, that stuff's not going away, we're gonna keep doing those things. But you also highlight some of these emerging roles that have begun to appear, or that we'll see in the next couple of years, you know, a more of a focus on distributed energy resources, like solar on roofs, for example, that LDCs are going to have to work to both enable as well as integrate into our own systems. It's going to include things like more customer programs, and rate design, etc. I'm curious, you know, how are LDCs going to balance that traditional role that we've already been doing, along with this rapidly new expanding set of roles that we need to tackle?    Teresa Sarkesian  21:38   That's a great question, Trevor. So look, LDCs will continue, as we always have been to be responsible for safe, reliable and affordable delivery of electricity to customers, customers can count on us to do that 24/7. And even with all these anticipated grid expansions, we're not going to be shut down, if the critic dispatches so, you know, we're experts at multitasking in our sector, and we will continue to do so. And with the increases, as you mentioned, in distributed energy resources, and electrification, there are the pressures for us to adapt, modernize and change how we ensure the safety and reliability in the service to customers. And the emerging roles and responsibilities aren't something that's in the distant future. You know, as I mentioned before, changes the constant, we have been engaging in ongoing adaptation. And so when I think about the future, and I think about what we call grid modernization, it really is part of the ongoing continuous improvement, and the pursuit of the digital utility of the future, that every utility is on that journey. So you know, utilities have been bringing in new technologies, particularly related to information technology, communications, and digital solutions. And so while we're in early stages, we are expecting our members to become more digitally based in the future, they're going to be introducing advanced distribution management systems to monitor the grid. And they're also going to have distributed energy resource management systems to monitor all the connections that are behind the meter. So I think what is different now than in the past, is simply that the pace of change is being dramatically accelerated. So for example, it took us about 100 years to get the grid to its current size, yet, we need to almost double the current grid in 25 years. So we have to move four times as fast. And the grid is not going to be built with just simple poles and wires and one way energy flow like it has been for basically the last 100 years, it's going to be a lot more complex, we're going to see two way energy flows, so it's not just us sending power to the customer one way, they're potentially going to be selling back their energy generation or their energy storage back onto the grid. So we need to have that temerity, that two way, power flow. So that's going to be a big change. And we also expect there to be a lot more customer interaction. They want to leverage their own generation and storage behind the meter. And we as utilities, want to be able to leverage that to help us with you know, reliability, Storm outage, other emergency situations. So we see there's going to be a greater interactive relationship with customer than simply, you know, maybe sending a bill to them or offering them conservation programs, it's going to be much more dynamic than it has been in the past. And so, you know, over the last two decades, and we talked about this a bit already, the utility has been modernizing the system in response to government policy initiatives, regulatory requirements, and customer preferences. One other example, recently, utilities were required to implement something called green button. And we've been also engaging by bringing them more into the system through net metering. And a lot of our members are also involved in various pilot projects with the Independent Electricity System Operator and with Enercan to look at all kinds of new LTC models and functions. So and you're going to see a lot of this actually, in our vision paper is that to really be effective, cost effective. To make sure this happens at the accelerated pace, we do need for there to be proactive policy and regulatory changes, to remove barriers and empower LDCs to embrace these new evolving roles in shaping the future of the energy sector. And as I mentioned before, customers are demanding it. And I want to point out a research report that came out by the International Energy Agency just late last year. And they made it very clear that in quite a number of countries around the world, the lack of the regulatory permission to provide more investments in the distribution system is now becoming a significant barrier to new renewable energy projects connecting on the system. And while we don't have that situation here in Ontario, if we don't start moving quickly, in terms of reforming the regulatory context, then we might be like some of these other countries, and we don't want to be that a barrier, you want to be able to enable what our customers want on the grid.    Trevor Freeman  26:07   Yeah, so I'm going to ask you a question about that last point in a minute. But I think your framing of the ways that the sector is going to change, and the way our customers are going to interact with us is going to change is really great. And it's something that you know, often comes up in conversation. And I often say, there is no single strategy or tool here, we can't solve the coming challenges with just more poles and wires. We can't solve it with just new innovative solutions, we need all of those things, we need more poles and wires. But we also need more programming, more innovation, more technology, we need to utilize those distributed energy resources out there on the grid. So, I think that's a great way to frame it. Okay, so let's talk about grid planning a little bit. So LDCs play a really key role in helping forecast the needs of the future, both for our own distribution systems, but also feeding up into those broader provincial needs. So, the insight that we gain from our customers, we pass up to the IESO, for example, so that they can do planning at the provincial level. Traditionally, this is a pretty consistent process. You know, in the past, we get a sense from municipalities and developers, how cities are going to expand and grow. And we've generally been able to count on the typical home using roughly the same amount of electricity as homes that are out there today. So, we account for a certain expansion of commercial customers based on the Intel that we get from those customers. And we know roughly what they're going to use. The problem is that model's kind of being turned on its head a little bit. So, we now need to account for even our existing customers increasing their load because they are electrifying or they want to add EV chargers. And new developments today are likely going to have increased demand compared to some of the historical developments, because we're going to see all electric communities or at the very least more electrified and uses. So I know you don't have a crystal ball yet that tells us exactly how this change is going to happen. But what are LDCs doing to adapt their long term grid planning to account for this uncertainty?   Teresa Sarkesian  28:22   Yeah, you're so right, Trevor forecasting is getting more challenging. And I just want to start with a little story before I get into my answer about that. So, you know, electric vehicles are kind of the hot thing right now. And you know, although people I think are still on a waiting list for certain cars, there's lots of others that are available. And so one of the concerns that our sector had was we didn't know where these electric vehicles were going to pop up. And we weren't getting any kind of pre advanced warning when people started making orders or, you know, advanced purchases for electric vehicles. So we actually did a great advocacy campaign, with the province with both the Ministry of Energy of the Ministry of Transportation, to secure postal code data for utility, so they could see where people were going to be purchasing electric vehicles to help them with their own planning, in terms of, you know, making sure that their local feeders were upgraded their local transformers, and so that just got announced a year ago. But that's obviously not going to be good enough. And that just tells us about electric vehicles, you know, in the near term, but this is I think, you know, having sightlines into our customer behavior, whether we do that proactively with you know, consultations and communications with customers, or we can do it by you know, pinging the meter, or getting data such as postal codes. We are going to have to, you know, adapt and have greater visibility and sightlines into the customer. And so this is that some of that technology that I was talking about earlier, the sophisticated future grid is going to need lots of visibility and transparency, for usage and investment to be able to, you know, look at these two way power flows, look at how customers are behaving, in order to better plan the system, we also need to maximize and optimize the data that we have, you know, from our planners, it's going to be vital to protecting the grid reliability and resilience, we're going to have to have more partnerships with municipalities, in terms of their energy planning for the future and things that they want for their community. And, you know, one of the things that we're asking for on our paper is actually to, you know, rethink the distribution system plan, that the utilities have to file with the OMB every five years, and start building in a, you know, Grid Modernization plan within that broader plan. So we can get the regulator to start looking ahead and seeing what these requests are, it'll be important to also have various performance metrics and filing guidelines for grid modification from the energy board. So you know, these are some of the things I think that the membership is going to have to look at but it is going to be a very iterative experience, because it's just it's the pace of change is the big unknown. And so everyone talks about these things. But you know, I saw something today, I think it was from Ford Motor Company, and they're kind of slowing down, it's taken them a while to retool their plants. So that could take an extra two years now for them to be up and running and producing electric vehicles. So there's going to be all these other pieces of the puzzle that are constantly going to be changing a moving and evolving. It is I think, planning for the future is going to be very challenging. And I do expect the province to start talking about this higher level, maybe starting at the end of this year, they just came off a massive exercise related to the energy transition electrification panel. And I do expect to see more guidance from the province as well, in terms of how they're going to manage this planet, because it's not just planning for us. It's planning for everybody else in the system, too.    Trevor Freeman  32:02   Yeah. And for listeners out there, if you haven't had a look at that energy transition electrification panel reports, a really fascinating read. So I'd encourage you to take a look at it. You mentioned a lot of interesting things there. So for our listeners, and I'll probably do a future episode on this so I won't get into detail, but LDCs typically have to file five year rate applications once every five years that really lay out their plans for those five years and how they're going to fund them. So coincidentally, hydro Ottawa was getting ready to do our next one. And like I said, I'll probably talk about that on a future episode. But one thing we did when it comes to forecasting is, we conducted a electrification study that looks at if we electrify by 2050, like our plans, say we will and you know, society wise, what does that mean for the grid? And some of the inputs we took is, you know, what are the federal plans for electrification? What are our own municipal plans for electrification? What are we hearing from our customers, and that really, is helping us modify and change how we do grid forecasting, based on some of the changes that we're seeing from our customers. So I think this is a really important piece that, like you said, we're going to need to iterate on we're not going to get it right the first time. But we're starting to think of how do we need to change the way we do things in order to keep up with what our customers are doing.   Teresa Sarkesian  33:28   I think one thing I've seen more of the last few years, because this is much more complex than it's been in the past that I've seen, like the IESO, for example, they've done more, you know, scenario setting. So when they've had their, you know, their APO's and AER safe, they sort of had other two or three scenarios, and they're constantly updating their numbers every year. So these are other changes that we're starting to see. And even myself, I was just looking at the provincial budget detail the other day, they also set out, you know, scenarios as well. They're just not picking Oh, it's going to be, you know, X amount of deficit. And you know in 2028 they're actually forecasting out different scenarios. So I think that's another piece I see more in play, that people will, you know, showcase what assumptions they have, and will have maybe two or three different scenarios as well.    Trevor Freeman  34:21   Yeah, and I think it's a, it's a great way to tackle that unknown component to where we've never really been through a change like this before. We've never wholesale changed the way we use energy in our society. So there's a degree of uncertainty, obviously, and I think, targeting out that kind of, let's call it high, medium, low scenario, or whatever the metric might be, is going to be really critical for us to make sure we're staying within the boundaries of what's possible and what's probable and refining that constantly as we move forward. So that's a great point. Something else you mentioned a little bit ago, that's, you know, could be a bit of a nebulous term is grid modernization now I've actually got a future episode, and specifically about grid modernization and what hydro Ottawa is doing, I think it might actually be our next one. So we don't need to go into all the details on this. But let's just help our listeners understand what do we mean when we're talking about grid modernization? And why is this important? Why is it important to our customers that we do this kind of back office improvement?   Teresa Sarkesian  35:23   So I'm going to keep it really simple, because I know you're going to do a deep dive on it and a future episode. But essentially, Grid Modernization are improvements that LDCs will make simply to augment our capabilities, and enable us to offer new or improved services to customers. So back office improvements might look like things like real time sensing, and monitoring systems to improve efficiency and reliability. Or we may be investing in new digital infrastructure communication systems to improve safety, cybersecurity, it can also include more visible improvements to safeguard our infrastructure against extreme weather, and climate change to reduce outages. And like one, I guess, example that some of your customers might already be recognizing, you know, we made investments in green button, which enables customers to download their data, send it to a third party if they want to save on customer use. So it really is the whole soup to nuts, it really is not just one type of technology or solution. It is a combination of a whole series of things that the that the utility will need to do. And I think why we want to do it, I think when we look at all of the pressures on the system, from NetZero objectives to housing priorities, you know, to accelerate broadband development, and support electrification, the pressures seems to be never ending. And the only way that we can respond to all those pressures, is to be grid ready. And, you know, like I said, it's it is a form of continuous improvement. It's just that now it's the pace accelerated pace is such so extraordinary, that we need to have a more dedicated plan. But most importantly, we have to make sure we have dedicated attention by policymakers and regulatory decision makers as well. Because right now, there isn't that dedicated attention to this very important task. Yeah,   Trevor Freeman  37:28   Yeah, I mean, it's, it's great that you bring up all these pressures that we're feeling that it's I think it's time we kind of talk about that elephant in the room, our customers often ask us about affordability, or we're hearing from our customers about affordability, I was actually at a customer event not too long ago, and talking about the change that we're going to see here talking about some of this, you know, large scale transition of our of our energy sector. These are not small investments that we have to make. We're talking about both an increase of our infrastructure, you know, you mentioned almost doubling the capacity of the grid. We're talking about modernizing our grid systems, that's a lot of back office work with new technology, and bringing on new programs. Like this is a big change. Energy affordability is already a kind of a challenge today for some folks. So as we get into this new investment that we have to make as we start moving down the path of the energy transition, how do we balance affordability, especially for our vulnerable populations, with the level of investment that we know is necessary to do the things that we have to do? Yes,   Teresa Sarkesian  38:42   Yes, that's the multibillion-dollar question, Trevor. And it's something I'm going to carve out my response, because there's some things that we've put into our vision paper for the future, because affordability is absolutely critical. And as you know, this is basically a massive restructuring of the economy going forward. So, there's may be other participants who might be playing a funding role. So, you know, right now, obviously, you know, customers aren't monolithic, and you know, residential customers who are struggling to pay bills. Do you have some programs that they can, that they can access, they have the low income Energy Assistance Program, they have the Ontario electricity support program. Some of those are funded by the tax base, some are funded by other electricity customers. The province also gives a rebate to customers in Ontario, and that's a pretty big rebate. I don't think a lot of residential customers are aware of it but it is over 7 billion annually to residential small business customers. That's a lot of money. But I don't know if customers really appreciate that. So I don't know what's going to be available going forward. These are some of the challenges that you know policy makers, you know, have to address as well. So, when we were thinking about this as part of our paper, we sort of looked at it from a number of perspectives. So, the federal government has set up all these Net Zero targets, they've set out, you know, targets for electric vehicle manufacturing, as well. And so it might be appropriate for them to share part of the burden with this massive energy transformation. And it's interesting, we actually pulled customers about 2000 Customers two years ago, we asked them a whole series of questions about the changes going forward. And customers do have different perspectives about who should be paying for some of this energy transition. So when we asked them about who should be paying for electric vehicle, charging infrastructure, and they said, Oh, electricity, customers should pay for that, because that's something that everyone's going to benefit from. When we ask them about, you know, who should be paying for the electricity grid, to address climate change and hit Net Zero targets, they actually the majority, 58% said, the taxpayer should be paying for that. So I think that's just a very interesting data point. But it's something that, you know, we've been active on in terms of having those conversations with the federal government, saying that, you know, you have offered different subsidies to attract different companies to invest in Ontario, based on our clean grid, but we need to have the whole grid support it. So, you know, we're pursuing federal government support, we also are looking at increased maybe private equity engagement in in our sector. So right now, we have a couple of private members, but there's not a lot of private equity money in the sector, most of our members are municipally owned, and municipalities can't invest in their utility, probably even if they wanted to, because they're in short supply of funds as well, they have their own taxpayer that they have to deal with. So one of the solutions we are putting forward to government is to increase the private equity threshold, so it doesn't trigger additional taxes, right now, it's only 10% ownership. But we're saying that maybe a tool in the toolbox should be up to 49% ownership. So it would allow private equity to come the patient capital, they're not maybe looking to seek a return right away. So there's some you know, flexibility there as well. Another thing we're looking at is to revisit the debt equity ratios of utilities to manage the costs over the long term. So you'd be effectively amortizing on some of those grid investments as well. So these are some of the ideas that we have around how we can basically fund the energy transition going forward. You know, and some people say, Well, if you could get customers to think about their energy usage holistically, so if they're going to be, you know, moving away from a, you know, a combustion engine car, and they're going to be using heat pumps, instead of, you know, natural gas heating in their home, if you could get people to think holistically what they're saving on the kind of, you know, GHG side of things, versus what they are going to be spending on electricity, they may actually be spending less if they look at it holistically, but I don't really know, to be honest with you, so that I'd rather focus on the things that we could ask government for, as opposed to asking customers to be, you know, thinking more holistically at their entire energy usage, which is just not how they think. And I think, to change that behavior, would be quite a monumental task going forward. But those are some of the things that we think about, because we are very concerned about the affordability going forward, because it is such a massive change that we're all experiencing.   Trevor Freeman  43:50   Yeah, I think this is another example of there is no single solution here. There is no you know, silver bullet that's going to help us pay for all of this, we need all the tools on the table here, we need to look at all different options. And I think you outlined a couple of them, you know, in what you said about our customers impression of some of this change and who should pay for it. Last episode, I talked to David Coletto, from Abacus data, and he was saying on the whole Canadians really believe that a an electrified energy system, we know once we make that transition, we will be more secure, it will be more affordable. And I think those customers who have made some transition in their lives can see the benefit of that. But sometimes the initial hurdle is pretty hard to get over that upfront capital cost. And so looking for ways, both at the customer level as well as at the utility level, the LDC level I think is going to be important to help get over that initial capital outlay that's required, so that we can realize those benefits that we all know where they are that we know we'll see. So . Yeah, great filling some of those out. So I know I mentioned that I will get back to this. But I do want to talk to you about the advocacy role that the EDA plays. So you mentioned, you know, talking to governments and Ontario, the provincial governments across Canada, the provincial government has jurisdiction over most energy matters. So advocacy to the government is a key role that you play. I'm curious, what are you asking the government to do or to provide to help some of these changes that we're talking about happen? What is the advocacy that you're pushing for with the government.   Teresa Sarkesian  45:32    So I'm going to try to keep it really simple and just sort of, you know, tie it back to our vision paper for now, because at any given time, I'm working on 20 or 30 l policy issues, primarily with the Ontario government. But this past year, we have expanded our work to also include the federal government, because they have investment tax credits that we are interested in for our members to see if they could be eligible for those. We're interested in them changing things to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, also to provide new sources of equity there. And we're also pursuing grants, as well, for grid modernization. So provincially, a whole whack of issues. But I'm going to go back to our paper just to give your audience a little bit of a sneak peek on some of the things that we're going to be asking for. So one of the first things we're going to be asking for is to get a common understanding and definition of grid modernization, and electrification. And this is not really new of an idea, we kind of have copied it from the US, there's a lot of jurisdictions, there where very clear objectives that have been set out in order to justify grid modernization, investments. So we think that it'd be beneficial for Ontario to do that, because then once you have those objectives in place, it is going to make it a lot easier to be able to prioritize grid modernization capabilities, functionalities, and investments in line with those objectives. You know, and then from there, you know, we're looking at creating a series of foundational investments. So going forward, some of the things that we think are foundational, are things like the distributed energy resource management systems and the advanced metering infrastructure, which is sort of like smart meters 2.0, for lack of a better term, and also the advanced distribution management systems. So we see those are going to be foundational pieces that all utilities are going to need to be able to help customers interact with the grid, and they're going to be necessary grid investments. So how what we see for those is we would like it to be similar policy direction, like we had for smart meters and green button, where you have government mandated activities. And then those are given, you know, a kind of lower standard of evidence with the Ontario Energy Board to support that capital infrastructure, they're deemed as priorities and ties back to that initial plan, where you set objectives, as long as those objectives can be that then those should get a pass through.   Trevor Freeman  48:12   If I could jump in right there just for our listeners. So what Teresa is describing here is, at the moment when there are unique things that are not part of government mandate, yet every LDC and Ontario, of which there are many 60, something I don't even have the number in front of me but every LDC when it comes time to enact that project has to go through a whole exercise of justifying it proving why it's necessary, saying this is why we want to do it. If there was some commonality across LDCs in the province, we wouldn't have to put as much effort into, you know, the report writing side of it, we could just get down to business and make these changes that we all know across the province are important. So I think it's helpful for us to understand how that process works.    Teresa Sarkesian  49:00   Yeah, and thank you for interjecting on that, Trevor, because if government wants us to move fast, we can, but we need that certainty. So you know, we're no different than any even though we're regulated monopolies. We're really no different than any other business that wants to do business in Ontario, you're always looking for certainty and clarity, from legislation from policy from regulation, because the uncertainty is what slows things down. Another recommendation that I'm moving forward with is that we need to move beyond pilot projects. I had a conversation with a consultant who is working with Enercan on this and they want to move beyond I love their term, death by demonstration. We've got a couple of dozen pilot projects currently in the sector, whether they're funded provincially through the IESO or they're funded federally through Natural Resources Canada, and you know, there's some very exciting results that are coming out of those. But some of those pilot projects have been going on for all almost four years, in one case, almost five. And at some point you need to pull off the band aid said, Yes, this is a success, all LDCs would be eligible for funding in this. So we need to be able to scale it up. Or we just say no, that's not going to work. But being in this constant state of the pilot projects, while it's informative, at some point, someone has to have the courage to say we're moving forward, this is going to be scalable. Another recommendation we have is to create an action plan to develop a comprehensive human resource strategy to address quantity quality, and partnership aspects of the labor force going forward. There's some great work that electricity, Human Resources Canada has done. And, you know, DC 28,000, replacement and new jobs in our sector, by 2050 and that's, the electricity sector at large across Canada. And I did some, I think back of the envelope calculations to try to figure out, okay, some assumptions about distribution. And we're looking at close to 10,000 new positions in the sector, over the next 25 years. Every sector is having challenges, filling current jobs, never mind jobs, that we're not even sure what they are quite yet. So we don't necessarily have the right programs at the universities and colleges or private training institutions to start getting the right people and talent into our organization. And, you know, so we need help for that. And, you know, I am encouraged, I saw a little announcement out of the province yesterday to have more electricians down on the Chatham Kent area, because that's the whole greenhouse industry. And so I said, Okay, that's exciting. So people are starting to pay attention, but we need it more than just in one local community, it needs to be province wide. And, you know, like I mentioned before, we need to have more conversations about what the funding models are going to be to fund the energy transition. So these are some of the issues and recommendations that we're taking forward from our vision paper. But day to day, I guess that's the other thing, I want to mention in terms, the change I've seen, I've never seen us work on so many issues, prepare so many submissions, invest so many staff at various tables and working groups. And we love doing all that work. We love representing our members at every table of discussion possible, but I've never seen so many. And they're not just oh, you're there for a month, and you're done. Some of these they are multi year. So they have longer legs, because they are far more complex. But you know, we're working every day, you know, for members that way. Very, very proud to represent our sector think it's a fantastic sector. And the fact that they're going to play such a pivotal role in the future makes us only want to work harder to make sure we get the best of everything for our membership.    Trevor Freeman  52:54   Yeah, I know, we echo that at our level, we can certainly see a lot more stakeholdering and engagement happening with all players in the sector, but especially the government as they figure out this energy transition to right, let's not, you know, let's not forget that the government needs to figure out where policy needs to go to lead it, and it's a great role that you're playing to kind of bring the voice of the distributors to the government. Because again, as we've talked about a couple of times, we're really on the front lines, and we're hearing from our customers, and we're seeing what needs to change right at that customer level, in order to enable some of this stuff that's happening so that that conversation between the LDCs and the government I think is really important. So you know, we don't work in a vacuum, I just mentioned a number of stakeholders in our sector. And I highlighted the interconnected nature of our grid at the beginning of our conversation. There are a lot of different players working together to really, at the end goal is bring power to the customer. How do you see the existing model changing or expanding in terms of, you know, the kinds of partnerships that LDCs have moving forward? So you know, you mentioned private equity is being a potential upcoming role. There are things like technology companies that are developing innovative solutions, who, you know, we maybe were a bit more arm's length with in the past. There's a changing nature of our relationship with the customers, you brought up the idea of going from one way power flow to kind of two way back and forth. arrangement. How do you see that partnership evolving in the future?   Teresa Sarkesian  54:30   Well, I think the good news is, there's a very strong foundation knowledge to build on. So I'm going to talk about three different areas. I'm going to talk about sort of shared services across utilities, and I'll talk about a partnerships with the private industry. And I'd like to talk about the engagement with customers as well. So firstly, there's lots of shared services going around in the industry already. There's all kinds of partnerships that members are trying to reduce costs for customers and find the best solution. So instead of saying, having 60 utilities run, seek out the best solution, you know, you get everyone working collaboratively to find a solution at the best price for customers. So we've seen a lot, just in my 15 years I've been there you've got in the past, there was, you know, common delivery of conservation programs, members work together on common engineering standards, lots of mutual aid assistance agreements across among utilities, for Storm Recovery. I've seen shared billing services, bulk purchasing products, and shared control room practices and services. And I've seen private sector play a much bigger role in utilities, as well. I've had the privilege to attend some openings, and launches of micro grids, where you have maybe a solar company and an energy storage, battery company, that are part of that group with utility, creating a micro grid for their community to provide maybe warming and cooling charging services when there's a major outage, for example. And I've seen now, some smart grids, you know, one that's already been implemented up in the north that has a significant private sector partner. And I've seen it also there's a new one, that's another one in the north, that's going to be developed with a private sector partner. And I've seen, not just Ontario businesses, I've seen what businesses come in one of our members is doing a distribution system operator pilot model with a partner in from Norway. So I'm really encouraged, I think the foundation is already there to kind of build on all those successes we already have, and do more, you know, and we talked about the customers going forward as well, that they're going to be to help playing a role, or we hope they're going to be playing a role. Because there's a lot of energy, battery storage and solar generation, sort of behind the meter, whether it's a farm, or it's a residential customer, or it's a big industrial customer. And so we want to be able to optimize all of those resources into the system to be of benefit to all customers to reduce costs. But we'd have to give an incentive to those customers to participate, no one is going to let you know a utility access their, you know, solar panel generation or their battery storage, unless they're going to be getting paid to do so. And I think that's going to be really important going forward, because we don't want to over build the grid, I mean, the grid is going to be so big, going forward. And we have to find ways to avoid over building it. Because we don't want to be in a situation where you know, customers are having to pay too much for a grid that's not properly optimized. So trying to find solutions behind the meter, that will maybe either avoid or delay bigger generation investments or transmission investments, or even actually distribution investments, we want to optimize that. But right now, there's not really a lot of permission to do that. So we need to get that legislative and regulatory permission to do that, to turn those, you know, more passive customers into prosumers, that they're basically your their proactive customers by selling their energy storage back to the grid. So I'm really optimistic. I think we've got a great foundation work to do on the customer peace, letting them participate as prosumers and the system, but I'm pretty optimistic that that we can get that job done.   Trevor Freeman  58:27   Yeah, I think it really highlights, there's a lot to be excited about when it comes to the change, that's going to happen. There's a lot of opportunity out there both for the LDCs, for the other stakeholders for our customers, that this energy transition, this change is going to bring about, you know, there's some challenges to I know, he talked about the challenges. I wonder, though, what do you see, as you know, one of the single biggest are a series of risks to achieving the vision that you've outlined in the paper, how could this go off the rails and not happen the way we need it to happen?   Teresa Sarkesian  59:03   Well, I always like to be glass half full as opposed to half empty, but you're taking me down that road? Trevor? So I'm going to answer that question.    Trevor Freeman  59:11   It's my job.    Teresa Sarkesian  59:11   So you know, obviously, our vision for the future role is big, but it's practical. The energy transition is upon us now. It's not something to contemplate for the future. So we think that the biggest risk is effectively inaction or kind of, you know, kicking the issue down the road, 510 years. We're seeing this right, nearby jurisdictions in the US are taking action. There's been significant funding out of the Biden administration, for all kinds of initiatives from you know, cybersecurity, to grid modernization down there. They're doing they're very competitive. They want to attract businesses, to the US. And so, you know, that's a major competition for Ontario. So if we don't seize the opportunities to kind of start working on these important issues now, we could lose economic development opportunities, we could lose jobs, we could lose investment, we could lose our talent as well, that may want to move to another jurisdiction. So to mitigate that risk, the LDCs, and policymakers have to work together on developing a shared vision around electrification and grid modernization, develop a plan of action and create a realistic timeline to turn that vision into reality.   Trevor Freeman  1:00:26   Yeah, it's a it's a great point. And I think it's important for people to understand that change is happening, the change is going to happen, whether we want it to or not. And, you know, often sometimes people say, Are we are we really going to see this change? I think we're already seeing it, we're already seeing customers want to change the way they interact with energy. The risk here is if we don't react quick enough or properly enough, the costs of that change becomes higher the reliability of the grid that we're working with, goes down, that general customer experience is not where it needs to be. And then you've highlighted some other ones, you know, we can really struggle with talent if we're not offering them the kind of cool innovative roles that they're looking for. But the neighboring jurisdiction is, so it's not so much that the change may or may not happen, it's how do we react to it in a way that really serves all of our stakeholder the best. So, Teresa, this has been a really great conversation. And I really appreciate you taking the time to join us and chat with us today. I think there's a number of things that we talked about today that really set up future conversations I'm going to have nicely. So thanks for the half for teeing that up. And this is your second time on the show. No doubt, there'll be a third time because I think there's a lot more that down the road, we can we can pick apart. So thanks for that. We typically end our interviews here with some common questions to all our guests. So to start off, what is a book that you've read that you think everybody should read?   Teresa Sarkesian  1:01:56   So one I recently enjoyed it's by a friend too. By Darrell Bricker, he wrote Empty Planet, and that is very, very good talks about actually declining global population. And what that means from everything from, you know, businesses to climate

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #267 A330. Neste episódio conversamos com Rafael Olmedo e Gustavo de Medeiros (Coordenadores de Flight Standards A330) sobre as atualizações nos manuais e novidades recentes da frota. Abordamos a chegada de duas novas aeronaves e suas principais diferenças, o radar meteorológico RDR-4000 e suas características, APU Start Performance, standard callouts, single engine taxi in, OptiClimb, OEB 57 que trata sobre pressurização e o envio do MTOW via ACARS em todas as operações. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

Ontario's electricity sector is evolving, as the province navigates the transition to cleaner energy amidst rising demand. In thinkenergy episode 135, we explore the grid's structure and key players, highlighting the crucial role of distributors (Local Distribution Companies or LDCs) in facilitating this transition. Guest Teresa Sarkesian, President and CEO of the Electricity Distributors Association (EDA), sheds light on LDCs' frontline efforts and pivotal contributions shaping the energy landscape. Related links   Teresa Sarkesian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-sarkesian-53898613/   Electricity Distributors Association: https://www.eda-on.ca/  Green Button information: https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/green-button  Electrification and energy transition panel report: https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontarios-clean-energy-opportunity-report-electrification-and-energy-transition-panel  Ontario Electricity Support Program: https://ontarioelectricitysupport.ca/  Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en     To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod     ...   Transcript: Trevor Freeman  0:07  Hi, welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast-changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the frontlines of the energy transition. Join me Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and even up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you've got thoughts, feedback or ideas for topics that we should cover, we'd love to hear from you. Please reach out to us, at think energy at hydro ottawa.com Hi, everyone, welcome back. Now it's no secret that Ontario's electricity sector is transforming rapidly as it moves to both decarbonize the grid itself, you know, we have a very clean grid in Ontario, but it's not totally carbon free. And to support the growing demand for electricity as our customers across the province, take steps to electrify and change how they use energy. The show is all about exploring those changes, among other things, and today is no different. But before we dive into our conversation today, I think it would be helpful for me to spend just a few quick minutes on some basics about how our electricity grid is structured in Ontario, and who some of the key players are. Now I know some of our listeners will know this already, but it can be hard to keep track of all those key players. And Ontario's structure is a little different than some of the neighboring jurisdictions no two jurisdictions are exactly alike. So, a refresher is never a bad thing. Now the most basic description is that electricity is largely generated at central generation facilities. So, think nuclear power plants are your electric generating stations, some gas fired generating stations and large-scale wind and solar installations. We call these entities generators simple as that. That electricity is then transmitted across the province in an interconnected grid of high voltage transmission lines, which also connect to other jurisdictions such as neighboring provinces and states, and Ontario, Hydro One runs the transmission network. Now you've probably seen this transmission network. These would be the large metal towers that you see out in the middle of a field when you're driving along the highway or in rural areas that have electricity wires strung way up high in the air. The last stage before it gets to the end user is called distribution. So, this is where electricity is taken from those high voltage lines stepped down to a usable voltage for residential and commercial customers via transformers and substations, and then distributed over a network of overhead and underground wires, then these would be the wires that you would see at the top of those wooden or composite poles that are along the side of the road in your neighborhood. The entities that run this distribution part are called distributors, again, simple as that. So, there's a few other key players that are worth mentioning here. Energy Policy is primarily the jurisdiction of the provincial government, who sets the general direction and associated rules and regulations accordingly. The Ontario Energy Board or OEB is the regulatory body who governs what all those other players do and enacts the government mandate. And finally, at least for today's purposes, we have the system operator. It's called The Independent Electricity System Operator in Ontario, or IESO, who runs the system. So, if you're in Windsor, Ontario, or Ottawa, or North Bay, and you want to turn on your air conditioner, or plug your EV in to charge, the IESO is responsible for making sure there's enough power on the grid to handle that load. So, I hope everyone is still with me and feel free to pause and do some jumping jacks if that was a lot to take in. Our conversation today is going to be focused on the role of the distributor. So, for full disclosure, as you know, I work for hydro Ottawa who is one of those distributors, we serve most electricity customers in the City of Ottawa, and the neighboring village of Casselman and in Ontario, you will often hear distributors referred to as local distribution companies or LDCs. So, forgive me if I slip into that acronym throughout the conversation today, that's really just the sort of common name that we refer to those distributors as. But I'll try to mix it up and make sure that, that I'm explaining that acronym throughout as well. So, the distributor is really the front line, the customer facing entity of the entire electricity system. If you are an electricity customer, and you think about the electricity system, you are probably thinking about your distributor. Chances are you get your bill from a distributor, even though for most customers, most of what you pay on that bill doesn't actually go to the LDC. Some of it stays with your local distribution company, but most of it goes to the transmitter to the generator, to the IESO etc. When the power goes out, it's probably your LDC that you call and it's your LDC that will give you a restoration time. Sometimes outages are caused by issues up the line, so to speak in the transmission portion of the grid. But often the issue is a localized one. And it's your LDC that is identifying the problem and fixing it, whether that means rolling a truck to string new cable, or performing switching to work around the problem. And finally, it's your LDC that is really on the frontlines of the energy transition. While all parts of the grid must then have started to change, the LDCs are really working hand in hand with our customers to identify where and how fast and new demand is needed to bridge that gap between customers and policymakers to enable more and more renewable generation. And also to determine what new technologies or programs we need to pilot and scale up. And it's really the LDCs that are driving change in the way that electricity is managed at the individual customer level moving forward. So, to help us make some sense of this, I'm happy to have Teresa Sarkesian on the show today. Teresa is the president and CEO of the electricity Distributors Association, which is a role that she's held since 2016. This is actually Teresa second time on the show the first being back in December 2021. So we're happy to have Teresa back, Teresa, welcome back to the show.   Teresa Sarkesian  6:23  Thanks so much, Trevor. I'm really delighted to be back.   Trevor Freeman  6:27  Yeah, we're glad to have you. So, like I said, you were back on our show in 2021. I don't know if it's because of how COVID has changed our lives or if this is just the way things go. But sometimes, you know, weeks seem like years. So, 2021 is a long time ago. Let's start by refreshing our listeners on the role and mandate of the electricity Distributors Association.   Teresa Sarkesian  6:49  Sure, thing so the electricity Distributors Association, or the EDA our little acronym represents Ontario's public and private electric utilities that distribute electricity to 5.4 million homes, businesses and institutional customers across the province. And I should note that those 5.4 million customers really refers to build accounts so you have families that are behind a build account. So effectively the millions and millions of Ontarians and businesses that operate and live here are customers of our utilities. And as you know our members are on the front lines of power, and have developed a strong trust with their customers by providing safe, reliable and affordable service for over 100 years. The EDA itself provides analysis and networking and advocacy for our members to ensure that the energy policy direction and framework in Ontario is fair and balanced, supporting the financial viability of utilities to deliver service and ensuring affordability for customers. And long term, we are looking to ensure that our local distribution company members can become the premier energy solution providers to their customers, and that they're able to provide the value-added services that customers are already expecting from them but are going to grow with the energy transformation and electrification in the future.   Trevor Freeman  8:09  Yeah, it's kind of like I said, when people think about the electricity sector, they're probably thinking about their distributor. And the EDA is kind of that common voice for those distribution companies. So, you first joined the EDA back in 2009, and have been the president and CEO since 2016. So, we'll look ahead and talk about the future in a minute. But before we do that, tell us about how things have changed so far during your tenure. How are things different from 2009 When you first joined the organization?   Teresa Sarkesian  8:40  Yeah, and you know, this is almost like perfect timing, Trevor, because I've been at the association now for 15 years, I'm just marking my 15-year anniversary. So, feels really apropos to kind of reflect and look back. So, I want to break down my answer into two parts. So, I'm going to talk to you about some, I guess, just my own personal observations about the electricity system at large. And then I'm going to talk more about the changes in distribution. But some of the changes that I thought were really quite significant and profound, sort of when I joined the industry in 2009, I joined at a time when there was the Green Energy Act, and the province was looking to connect all kinds of renewable energy generation to the electricity grid. So that was fairly significant. Another thing that was happening with the province is that they closed down coal fired generation. That was pretty massive. In fact, I think, at the time, it was the largest kind of carbon reduction initiative in North America. And I think even to this date today, I think it still is something that Ontario really has to be proud of. Another thing that you know, at the time, I think that was you know, fairly significant in 2015 is just the expectation of what the demand would be. What was interesting, sort of like the past for 15 years, the demand from customers for electricity was actually flat or declining. And that's all changed. Now. 15 years later, we're, we're now forecasting, massive increases in in demand of energy, which could potentially be doubling in the future. And the other point I'd like to make is just the nuclear renaissance that we're having. I think when I joined the sector in 2009, I'll tell you, I think the public opinion of nuclear was actually quite low. And that's been completely turned around lots of geopolitical events around the world, I think, have driven that. And now that nuclear is having a huge Renaissance. And you're seeing, you know, lots of new investments in nuclear. And we're not talking about shutting down reactors anymore. We're talking about refurbishing and expanding. So those are some of the things that I've observed over the last 15 years that have really changed. And for local distribution companies, I think what I have seen is a growing expectation by both government and the regulators for electric utilities to do more to both support the grid reliability and meet growing expectation from customers. So, I started in the sector in 2009, it was right on the brink of implementation of smart meters, and time of use. And what was interesting is that was mandated, there were very few jurisdictions in the world that actually had mandated smart meters and time of use pricing. So again, Ontario is was one of the first. And so that was a big change for LDCs. To move from, you know, smart meters and having to bring in that technology and also support the technology of time of use. I did mention the Green Energy Act at the time, we suddenly had to connect 1000s and 1000s, of new solar and wind generation, as well. And that was all new. There were no protocols, there were no standards for that. So that was fairly significant as well. And when I kind of fast forward to I guess, more recently, there have been a lot of changes from government, I think they've really supported our industry, they understand the trust that we have, with our customers. And they've implemented, you know, a number of new changes in terms of rate structures, they've asked us to implement ultra low-rate pricing that can support overnight electric vehicle charging. And they've also asked us to introduce a green button digital platform that allows customers to download their energy data and share with third parties for you know, different assessments and tools for lowering energy costs. But it's all not, you know, unicorns and kittens, there's challenges to for our sector, grid resilience was, you know, not really, people talked about it in 2009, but not like they're talking about it now, because of climate change. And we are seeing more frequent storms, causing, you know, obviously, outages for the customer, and also significant damage to the distribution grid. And I know that hydro Ottawa has faced more than its fair share of very destructive storms over the past few years, we have Yes, I can't remember which Victoria Day weekend where we had, I didn't ever know how to say it the derecho or the derecho. So there, we weren't getting storms we've never even heard of before. And unfortunately, I think that is our new normal. So, grid resilience is something that we are very concerned about, and we need to make sure we've got the appropriate investments for that. So those are just a few of the highlights that, you know, when I came into the sector sort of things that were kind of ramping up, and then what's happening now, but I guess what I could say, the commonality is there's constant change in the sector. And what I'm seeing going forward is that change is going to be accelerated.   Trevor Freeman  13:40  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's fascinating to listen to you lay it all out like that. Thinking back to 15 years ago, it's hard to even remember, you know, not having smart meters, having meters that really just ticked forward and measured your consumption over the course of a month, and someone would come and read that. And, you know, having declining or even flat demand profiles that aren't increasing is so different from the world that we are in today. But I think what you said there at the end is really important. We are in our industry, an organization that knows about change, we're constantly changing, which helps us as we look forward into your point, we're going to see that level of change and the pace of change accelerate. So, I think that sets us up pretty well. So, let's start to look forward, then I know that the EDA is about to launch a new vision paper. So, we're going to dive into some of the details. But maybe let's start by kind of a high-level summary of what is the vision that you are trying to lay out with this paper?   Teresa Sarkesian  14:42  Okay, and no problem. So, I think what I want to start just give a little bit of background as to why we did this. We've done a couple of vision papers and implementation plans in the past. But you know, they were like seven, eight years ago and things have changed a lot even in Seven or eight years. So, what we've been seeing, obviously, I think the big change over the last few years has been the big focus on meeting Net Zero targets in 2050, that we are going to get to net zero in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions. Not only in Canada, but this is actually a bit of a global commitment, you know, for countries that have signed on to that objective. So, what happens when you set up, you know, those big audacious goals? You have all kinds of organizations and entities looking at how are we going to get there, how much it's going to cost? What do we need to do to get there? And so, when we started reviewing some of these publications, both in Ontario, Canada, and actually in other jurisdictions, they were very good. They talked about what supply mix that we need the investment in transmission, but almost 100% of the papers, Trevor, if you can believe this, just neglected distribution, no one talked about distribution, they didn't talk about how distribution is going to have to change what the investments would be. And then we'll so we said it's going to be critical for us to identify the electric utility role and the energy transition, and how the sector will need to be grid ready to support electrification, economic development, grid resilience, and customer preferences. So, we view that LDCs are going to be pivotal in enabling Ontario's low carbon economy, navigating the challenges posed by climate policies, electrification trends, and these evolving customer demands. And with Ontario's growing economy and the demands for housing intensify, LDCs must innovate to effectively meet these accelerating electricity needs and changing preferences. And right now, we've seen the ISO is predicting significant consumption growth from 144 terawatt hours in 2023, to 240 terawatt hours and 2050 not quite double, but it's getting close. And so, this rapid growth demands urgent attention to adopt new strategies and to ensure that the local distribution companies can make the necessary investments in grid enhancements to expand the capacity and capability of the distribution system. So, while reliability and affordability remain Paramount customers do expect additional value from their utility service. And, you know, we are seeing all sorts of things that are happening, you know, such as the need for swift electric vehicle charging installation, and other upgrades that will increase the electrical load. We see that LDCs are more frequently interacting with businesses that seek utility partners to achieve their energy management, sustainability and ESG goals. And in parallel, the LDC must prepare to respond to increase climate change induced extreme weather events. So, recognizing the essential role of LDCs in the energy transition, we've worked in collaboration with industry experts to outline a vision of the role of utilities, so they can enable economic development, housing growth and electrification. And the report identifies urgent and practical steps that LDCs in partnership with the government, and its agencies must take in the near term to achieve the benefits of this transition. So, what you'll see in the paper is recommendations related to the need for clear policy direction on regulatory frameworks to support LDCs in becoming grid ready, and with a continued focus on affordability and enabling a customer choice and opportunity. And we also discuss issues like workforce needs. And we also emphasize the role of human capital in enabling technological advancements. So that's very high level what it is, and I will get into it a bit more as we have our discussion further.   Trevor Freeman  18:41  Yeah, I think it's a good way to frame it of the entire sector is changing at all levels. But what you're really doing is laying out that vision that roadmap for the distributors, in particular, and I think that's great. Maybe like, who is the audience for this paper? Who are you kind of directing this at?   Teresa Sarkesian  18:59  Well, we're still putting the crossing the T's and dotting the I's., but I think it's about 80 pages. So, it's not going to be for everyone, obviously, you know, government decision makers, government, policymakers, people that work in their regulatory agencies and our energy board, the Independent Electricity System Operator, we did try to make it accessible. There is an executive summary that's about two or three pages, which I think will be of great interest to a lot of people to read. And I think it gives a very kind of a high-level overview of what's in the document. So that's something that we're trying to do. And, you know, obviously our LTC members are an audience as well. They've been working with us hand in glove the last few months we've had extensive member meetings we had a board committee that helped steer this paper. But you know, ultimately, the paper is really focused on our customers because its customers and businesses that are driving a lot of this change for the future, whether it's businesses that are on their own journey on environmental, social and governance ESG objectives, and they're looking for more low carbon communities to invest in its customers who are very interested in EV charging, and maybe what the opportunity for the batteries can be to sell that storage back to the grid. It's, it's really the customers that are driving this change.   Trevor Freeman  20:31  Right Yeah, and I mean, the nature of this medium is I don't know who's out there listening. But I'd encourage, you know, all of our listeners, when this comes out, take a look at it and get some insight into kind of how the distributors role is laid out there. So, let's dive into some of the details. You know, you outline obviously, some of the traditional roles and functions of the LDCs. So, from maintaining, owning and maintaining the infrastructure, the poles and wires, and doing customer metering and billing, that stuff's not going away, we're going to keep doing those things. But you also highlight some of these emerging roles that have begun to appear, or that we'll see in the next couple of years, you know, a more of a focus on distributed energy resources, like solar on roofs, for example, that LDCs are going to have to work to both enable as well as integrate into our own systems. It's going to include things like more customer programs, and rate design, etc. I'm curious, you know, how are LDCs going to balance that traditional role that we've already been doing, along with this rapidly new expanding set of roles that we need to tackle?   Teresa Sarkesian  21:38  That's a great question, Trevor. So, look, LDCs will continue, as we always have been to be responsible for safe, reliable and affordable delivery of electricity to customers, customers can count on us to do that 24/7. And even with all these anticipated grid expansions, we're not going to be shut down, if the critic dispatches so, you know, we're experts at multitasking in our sector, and we will continue to do so. And with the increases, as you mentioned, in distributed energy resources, and electrification, there are the pressures for us to adapt, modernize and change how we ensure the safety and reliability in the service to customers. And the emerging roles and responsibilities aren't something that's in the distant future. You know, as I mentioned before, changes the constant, we have been engaging in ongoing adaptation. And so, when I think about the future, and I think about what we call grid modernization, it really is part of the ongoing continuous improvement, and the pursuit of the digital utility of the future, that every utility is on that journey. So, you know, utilities have been bringing in new technologies, particularly related to information technology, communications, and digital solutions. And so, while we're in early stages, we are expecting our members to become more digitally based in the future, they're going to be introducing advanced distribution management systems to monitor the grid. And they're also going to have distributed energy resource management systems to monitor all the connections that are behind the meter. So, I think what is different now than in the past, is simply that the pace of change is being dramatically accelerated. So, for example, it took us about 100 years to get the grid to its current size, yet, we need to almost double the current grid in 25 years. So, we have to move four times as fast. And the grid is not going to be built with just simple poles and wires and one way energy flow like it has been for basically the last 100 years, it's going to be a lot more complex, we're going to see two-way energy flows, so it's not just us sending power to the customer one way, they're potentially going to be selling back their energy generation or their energy storage back onto the grid. So, we need to have that temerity, that two-way, power flow. So that's going to be a big change. And we also expect there to be a lot more customer interaction. They want to leverage their own generation and storage behind the meter. And we as utilities, want to be able to leverage that to help us with you know, reliability, Storm outage, other emergency situations. So, we see there's going to be a greater interactive relationship with customer than simply, you know, maybe sending a bill to them or offering them conservation programs, it's going to be much more dynamic than it has been in the past. And so, you know, over the last two decades, and we talked about this a bit already, the utility has been modernizing the system in response to government policy initiatives, regulatory requirements, and customer preferences. One other example, recently, utilities were required to implement something called green button. And we've been also engaging by bringing them more into the system through net metering. And a lot of our members are also involved in various pilot projects with the Independent Electricity System Operator and with Enercan to look at all kinds of new LTC models and functions. So, and you're going to see a lot of this actually, in our vision paper is that to really be effective, cost effective. To make sure this happens at the accelerated pace, we do need for there to be proactive policy and regulatory changes, to remove barriers and empower LDCs to embrace these new evolving roles in shaping the future of the energy sector. And as I mentioned before, customers are demanding it. And I want to point out a research report that came out by the International Energy Agency just late last year. And they made it very clear that in quite a number of countries around the world, the lack of the regulatory permission to provide more investments in the distribution system is now becoming a significant barrier to new renewable energy projects connecting on the system. And while we don't have that situation here in Ontario, if we don't start moving quickly, in terms of reforming the regulatory context, then we might be like some of these other countries, and we don't want to be that a barrier, you want to be able to enable what our customers want on the grid.   Trevor Freeman  26:07  Yeah, so I'm going to ask you a question about that last point in a minute. But I think your framing of the ways that the sector is going to change, and the way our customers are going to interact with us is going to change is really great. And it's something that you know, often comes up in conversation. And I often say, there is no single strategy or tool here, we can't solve the coming challenges with just more poles and wires. We can't solve it with just new innovative solutions, we need all of those things, we need more poles and wires. But we also need more programming, more innovation, more technology, we need to utilize those distributed energy resources out there on the grid. So, I think that's a great way to frame it. Okay, so let's talk about grid planning a little bit. So LDCs play a really key role in helping forecast the needs of the future, both for our own distribution systems, but also feeding up into those broader provincial needs. So, the insight that we gain from our customers, we pass up to the IESO, for example, so that they can do planning at the provincial level. Traditionally, this is a pretty consistent process. You know, in the past, we get a sense from municipalities and developers, how cities are going to expand and grow. And we've generally been able to count on the typical home using roughly the same amount of electricity as homes that are out there today. So, we account for a certain expansion of commercial customers based on the Intel that we get from those customers. And we know roughly what they're going to use. The problem is that model's kind of being turned on its head a little bit. So, we now need to account for even our existing customers increasing their load because they are electrifying or they want to add EV chargers. And new developments today are likely going to have increased demand compared to some of the historical developments, because we're going to see all electric communities or at the very least more electrified and uses. So I know you don't have a crystal ball yet that tells us exactly how this change is going to happen. But what are LDCs doing to adapt their long-term grid planning to account for this uncertainty?   Teresa Sarkesian  28:22  Yeah, you're so right, Trevor forecasting is getting more challenging. And I just want to start with a little story before I get into my answer about that. So, you know, electric vehicles are kind of the hot thing right now. And you know, although people I think are still on a waiting list for certain cars, there's lots of others that are available. And so, one of the concerns that our sector had was we didn't know where these electric vehicles were going to pop up. And we weren't getting any kind of pre advanced warning when people started making orders or, you know, advanced purchases for electric vehicles. So, we actually did a great advocacy campaign, with the province with both the Ministry of Energy of the Ministry of Transportation, to secure postal code data for utility, so they could see where people were going to be purchasing electric vehicles to help them with their own planning, in terms of, you know, making sure that their local feeders were upgraded their local transformers, and so that just got announced a year ago. But that's obviously not going to be good enough. And that just tells us about electric vehicles, you know, in the near term, but this is I think, you know, having sightlines into our customer behavior, whether we do that proactively with you know, consultations and communications with customers, or we can do it by you know, pinging the meter, or getting data such as postal codes. We are going to have to, you know, adapt and have greater visibility and sightlines into the customer. And so this is that some of that technology that I was talking about earlier, the sophisticated future grid is going to need lots of visibility and transparency, for usage and investment to be able to, you know, look at these two way power flows, look at how customers are behaving, in order to better plan the system, we also need to maximize and optimize the data that we have, you know, from our planners, it's going to be vital to protecting the grid reliability and resilience, we're going to have to have more partnerships with municipalities, in terms of their energy planning for the future and things that they want for their community. And, you know, one of the things that we're asking for on our paper is actually to, you know, rethink the distribution system plan, that the utilities have to file with the OMB every five years, and start building in a, you know, Grid Modernization plan within that broader plan. So, we can get the regulator to start looking ahead and seeing what these requests are, it'll be important to also have various performance metrics and filing guidelines for grid modification from the energy board. So, you know, these are some of the things I think that the membership is going to have to look at but it is going to be a very iterative experience, because it's just it's the pace of change is the big unknown. And so, everyone talks about these things. But you know, I saw something today, I think it was from Ford Motor Company, and they're kind of slowing down, it's taken them a while to retool their plants. So that could take an extra two years now for them to be up and running and producing electric vehicles. So, there's going to be all these other pieces of the puzzle that are constantly going to be changing a moving and evolving. It is I think, planning for the future is going to be very challenging. And I do expect the province to start talking about this higher level, maybe starting at the end of this year, they just came off a massive exercise related to the energy transition electrification panel. And I do expect to see more guidance from the province as well, in terms of how they're going to manage this planet, because it's not just planning for us. It's planning for everybody else in the system, too.   Trevor Freeman  32:02  Yeah. And for listeners out there, if you haven't had a look at that energy transition electrification panel reports, a really fascinating read. So, I'd encourage you to take a look at it. You mentioned a lot of interesting things there. So, for our listeners, and I'll probably do a future episode on this so I won't get into detail, but LDCs typically have to file five-year rate applications once every five years that really lay out their plans for those five years and how they're going to fund them. So coincidentally, hydro Ottawa was getting ready to do our next one. And like I said, I'll probably talk about that on a future episode. But one thing we did when it comes to forecasting is, we conducted a electrification study that looks at if we electrify by 2050, like our plans, say we will and you know, society wise, what does that mean for the grid? And some of the inputs we took is, you know, what are the federal plans for electrification? What are our own municipal plans for electrification? What are we hearing from our customers, and that really, is helping us modify and change how we do grid forecasting, based on some of the changes that we're seeing from our customers. So I think this is a really important piece that, like you said, we're going to need to iterate on we're not going to get it right the first time. But we're starting to think of how do we need to change the way we do things in order to keep up with what our customers are doing.   Teresa Sarkesian  33:28  I think one thing I've seen more of the last few years, because this is much more complex than it's been in the past that I've seen, like the IESO, for example, they've done more, you know, scenario setting. So, when they've had their, you know, their APO's and AER safe, they sort of had other two or three scenarios, and they're constantly updating their numbers every year. So, these are other changes that we're starting to see. And even myself, I was just looking at the provincial budget detail the other day, they also set out, you know, scenarios as well. They're just not picking Oh, it's going to be, you know, X amount of deficit. And you know in 2028 they're actually forecasting out different scenarios. So, I think that's another piece I see more in play, that people will, you know, showcase what assumptions they have, and will have maybe two or three different scenarios as well.   Trevor Freeman  34:21  Yeah, and I think it's a, it's a great way to tackle that unknown component to where we've never really been through a change like this before. We've never wholesale changed the way we use energy in our society. So, there's a degree of uncertainty, obviously, and I think, targeting out that kind of, let's call it high, medium, low scenario, or whatever the metric might be, is going to be really critical for us to make sure we're staying within the boundaries of what's possible and what's probable and refining that constantly as we move forward. So that's a great point. Something else you mentioned a little bit ago, that's, you know, could be a bit of a nebulous term is grid modernization now I've actually got a future episode, and specifically about grid modernization and what hydro Ottawa is doing, I think it might actually be our next one. So, we don't need to go into all the details on this. But let's just help our listeners understand what do we mean when we're talking about grid modernization? And why is this important? Why is it important to our customers that we do this kind of back-office improvement?   Teresa Sarkesian  35:23  So, I'm going to keep it really simple, because I know you're going to do a deep dive on it and a future episode. But essentially, Grid Modernization are improvements that LDCs will make simply to augment our capabilities, and enable us to offer new or improved services to customers. So back-office improvements might look like things like real time sensing, and monitoring systems to improve efficiency and reliability. Or we may be investing in new digital infrastructure communication systems to improve safety, cybersecurity, it can also include more visible improvements to safeguard our infrastructure against extreme weather, and climate change to reduce outages. And like one, I guess, example that some of your customers might already be recognizing, you know, we made investments in green button, which enables customers to download their data, send it to a third party if they want to save on customer use. So, it really is the whole soup to nuts, it really is not just one type of technology or solution. It is a combination of a whole series of things that the that the utility will need to do. And I think why we want to do it, I think when we look at all of the pressures on the system, from NetZero objectives to housing priorities, you know, to accelerate broadband development, and support electrification, the pressures seem to be never ending. And the only way that we can respond to all those pressures, is to be grid ready. And, you know, like I said, it's it is a form of continuous improvement. It's just that now it's the pace accelerated pace is such so extraordinary, that we need to have a more dedicated plan. But most importantly, we have to make sure we have dedicated attention by policymakers and regulatory decision makers as well. Because right now, there isn't that dedicated attention to this very important task. Yeah,   Trevor Freeman  37:28  Yeah, I mean, it's, it's great that you bring up all these pressures that we're feeling that it's I think it's time we kind of talk about that elephant in the room, our customers often ask us about affordability, or we're hearing from our customers about affordability, I was actually at a customer event not too long ago, and talking about the change that we're going to see here talking about some of this, you know, large scale transition of our energy sector. These are not small investments that we have to make. We're talking about both an increase of our infrastructure, you know, you mentioned almost doubling the capacity of the grid. We're talking about modernizing our grid systems, that's a lot of back-office work with new technology, and bringing on new programs. Like this is a big change. Energy affordability is already a kind of a challenge today for some folks. So, as we get into this new investment that we have to make as we start moving down the path of the energy transition, how do we balance affordability, especially for our vulnerable populations, with the level of investment that we know is necessary to do the things that we have to do? Yes,   Teresa Sarkesian  38:42  Yes, that's the multibillion-dollar question, Trevor. And it's something I'm going to carve out my response, because there's some things that we've put into our vision paper for the future, because affordability is absolutely critical. And as you know, this is basically a massive restructuring of the economy going forward. So, there's may be other participants who might be playing a funding role. So, you know, right now, obviously, you know, customers aren't monolithic, and you know, residential customers who are struggling to pay bills. Do you have some programs that they can, that they can access, they have the low income Energy Assistance Program, they have the Ontario electricity support program. Some of those are funded by the tax base, some are funded by other electricity customers. The province also gives a rebate to customers in Ontario, and that's a pretty big rebate. I don't think a lot of residential customers are aware of it but it is over 7 billion annually to residential small business customers. That's a lot of money. But I don't know if customers really appreciate that. So, I don't know what's going to be available going forward. These are some of the challenges that you know policy makers, you know, have to address as well. So, when we were thinking about this as part of our paper, we sort of looked at it from a number of perspectives. So, the federal government has set up all these Net Zero targets, they've set out, you know, targets for electric vehicle manufacturing, as well. And so, it might be appropriate for them to share part of the burden with this massive energy transformation. And it's interesting, we actually pulled customers about 2000 Customers two years ago, we asked them a whole series of questions about the changes going forward. And customers do have different perspectives about who should be paying for some of this energy transition. So, when we asked them about who should be paying for electric vehicle, charging infrastructure, and they said, Oh, electricity, customers should pay for that, because that's something that everyone's going to benefit from. When we ask them about, you know, who should be paying for the electricity grid, to address climate change and hit Net Zero targets, they actually the majority, 58% said, the taxpayer should be paying for that. So, I think that's just a very interesting data point. But it's something that, you know, we've been active on in terms of having those conversations with the federal government, saying that, you know, you have offered different subsidies to attract different companies to invest in Ontario, based on our clean grid, but we need to have the whole grid support it. So, you know, we're pursuing federal government support, we also are looking at increased maybe private equity engagement in in our sector. So right now, we have a couple of private members, but there's not a lot of private equity money in the sector, most of our members are municipally owned, and municipalities can't invest in their utility, probably even if they wanted to, because they're in short supply of funds as well, they have their own taxpayer that they have to deal with. So, one of the solutions we are putting forward to government is to increase the private equity threshold, so it doesn't trigger additional taxes, right now, it's only 10% ownership. But we're saying that maybe a tool in the toolbox should be up to 49% ownership. So, it would allow private equity to come the patient capital, they're not maybe looking to seek a return right away. So, there's some you know, flexibility there as well. Another thing we're looking at is to revisit the debt equity ratios of utilities to manage the costs over the long term. So, you'd be effectively amortizing on some of those grid investments as well. So, these are some of the ideas that we have around how we can basically fund the energy transition going forward. You know, and some people say, Well, if you could get customers to think about their energy usage holistically, so if they're going to be, you know, moving away from a, you know, a combustion engine car, and they're going to be using heat pumps, instead of, you know, natural gas heating in their home, if you could get people to think holistically what they're saving on the kind of, you know, GHG side of things, versus what they are going to be spending on electricity, they may actually be spending less if they look at it holistically, but I don't really know, to be honest with you, so that I'd rather focus on the things that we could ask government for, as opposed to asking customers to be, you know, thinking more holistically at their entire energy usage, which is just not how they think. And I think, to change that behavior, would be quite a monumental task going forward. But those are some of the things that we think about, because we are very concerned about the affordability going forward, because it is such a massive change that we're all experiencing.   Trevor Freeman  43:50  Yeah, I think this is another example of there is no single solution here. There is no you know, silver bullet that's going to help us pay for all of this, we need all the tools on the table here, we need to look at all different options. And I think you outlined a couple of them, you know, in what you said about our customers impression of some of this change and who should pay for it. Last episode, I talked to David Coletto, from Abacus data, and he was saying on the whole Canadians really believe that an electrified energy system, we know once we make that transition, we will be more secure, it will be more affordable. And I think those customers who have made some transition in their lives can see the benefit of that. But sometimes the initial hurdle is pretty hard to get over that upfront capital cost. And so, looking for ways, both at the customer level as well as at the utility level, the LDC level I think is going to be important to help get over that initial capital outlay that's required, so that we can realize those benefits that we all know where they are that we know we'll see. So. Yeah, great filling some of those out. So, I know I mentioned that I will get back to this. But I do want to talk to you about the advocacy role that the EDA plays. So, you mentioned, you know, talking to governments and Ontario, the provincial governments across Canada, the provincial government has jurisdiction over most energy matters. So, advocacy to the government is a key role that you play. I'm curious, what are you asking the government to do or to provide to help some of these changes that we're talking about happen? What is the advocacy that you're pushing for with the government?   Teresa Sarkesian  45:32   So, I'm going to try to keep it really simple and just sort of, you know, tie it back to our vision paper for now, because at any given time, I'm working on 20 or 30 l policy issues, primarily with the Ontario government. But this past year, we have expanded our work to also include the federal government, because they have investment tax credits that we are interested in for our members to see if they could be eligible for those. We're interested in them changing things to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, also to provide new sources of equity there. And we're also pursuing grants, as well, for grid modernization. So provincially, a whole whack of issues. But I'm going to go back to our paper just to give your audience a little bit of a sneak peek on some of the things that we're going to be asking for. So, one of the first things we're going to be asking for is to get a common understanding and definition of grid modernization, and electrification. And this is not really new of an idea, we kind of have copied it from the US, there's a lot of jurisdictions, there where very clear objectives that have been set out in order to justify grid modernization, investments. So, we think that it'd be beneficial for Ontario to do that, because then once you have those objectives in place, it is going to make it a lot easier to be able to prioritize grid modernization capabilities, functionalities, and investments in line with those objectives. You know, and then from there, you know, we're looking at creating a series of foundational investments. So going forward, some of the things that we think are foundational, are things like the distributed energy resource management systems and the advanced metering infrastructure, which is sort of like smart meters 2.0, for lack of a better term, and also the advanced distribution management systems. So, we see those are going to be foundational pieces that all utilities are going to need to be able to help customers interact with the grid, and they're going to be necessary grid investments. So how what we see for those is we would like it to be similar policy direction, like we had for smart meters and green button, where you have government mandated activities. And then those are given, you know, a kind of lower standard of evidence with the Ontario Energy Board to support that capital infrastructure, they're deemed as priorities and ties back to that initial plan, where you set objectives, as long as those objectives can be that then those should get a pass through.   Trevor Freeman  48:12  If I could jump in right there just for our listeners. So what Teresa is describing here is, at the moment when there are unique things that are not part of government mandate, yet every LDC and Ontario, of which there are many 60, something I don't even have the number in front of me but every LDC when it comes time to enact that project has to go through a whole exercise of justifying it proving why it's necessary, saying this is why we want to do it. If there was some commonality across LDCs in the province, we wouldn't have to put as much effort into, you know, the report writing side of it, we could just get down to business and make these changes that we all know across the province are important. So, I think it's helpful for us to understand how that process works.   Teresa Sarkesian  49:00  Yeah, and thank you for interjecting on that, Trevor, because if government wants us to move fast, we can, but we need that certainty. So, you know, we're no different than any even though we're regulated monopolies. We're really no different than any other business that wants to do business in Ontario, you're always looking for certainty and clarity, from legislation from policy from regulation, because the uncertainty is what slows things down. Another recommendation that I'm moving forward with is that we need to move beyond pilot projects. I had a conversation with a consultant who is working with Enercan on this and they want to move beyond I love their term, death by demonstration. We've got a couple of dozen pilot projects currently in the sector, whether they're funded provincially through the IESO or they're funded federally through Natural Resources Canada, and you know, there's some very exciting results that are coming out of those. But some of those pilot projects have been going on for all almost four years, in one case, almost five. And at some point, you need to pull off the band aid said, yes, this is a success, all LDCs would be eligible for funding in this. So, we need to be able to scale it up. Or we just say no, that's not going to work. But being in this constant state of the pilot projects, while it's informative, at some point, someone has to have the courage to say we're moving forward, this is going to be scalable. Another recommendation we have is to create an action plan to develop a comprehensive human resource strategy to address quantity quality, and partnership aspects of the labor force going forward. There's some great work that electricity, Human Resources Canada has done. And, you know, DC 28,000, replacement and new jobs in our sector, by 2050 and that's, the electricity sector at large across Canada. And I did some, I think back of the envelope calculations to try to figure out, okay, some assumptions about distribution. And we're looking at close to 10,000 new positions in the sector, over the next 25 years. Every sector is having challenges, filling current jobs, never mind jobs, that we're not even sure what they are quite yet. So we don't necessarily have the right programs at the universities and colleges or private training institutions to start getting the right people and talent into our organization. And, you know, so we need help for that. And, you know, I am encouraged, I saw a little announcement out of the province yesterday to have more electricians down on the Chatham Kent area, because that's the whole greenhouse industry. And so, I said, Okay, that's exciting. So, people are starting to pay attention, but we need it more than just in one local community, it needs to be province wide. And, you know, like I mentioned before, we need to have more conversations about what the funding models are going to be to fund the energy transition. So, these are some of the issues and recommendations that we're taking forward from our vision paper. But day to day, I guess that's the other thing, I want to mention in terms, the change I've seen, I've never seen us work on so many issues, prepare so many submissions, invest so many staff at various tables and working groups. And we love doing all that work. We love representing our members at every table of discussion possible, but I've never seen so many. And they're not just oh, you're there for a month, and you're done. Some of these they are multi year. So, they have longer legs, because they are far more complex. But you know, we're working every day, you know, for members that way. Very, very proud to represent our sector think it's a fantastic sector. And the fact that they're going to play such a pivotal role in the future makes us only want to work harder to make sure we get the best of everything for our membership.   Trevor Freeman  52:54  Yeah, I know, we echo that at our level, we can certainly see a lot more stakeholdering and engagement happening with all players in the sector, but especially the government as they figure out this energy transition to right, let's not, you know, let's not forget that the government needs to figure out where policy needs to go to lead it, and it's a great role that you're playing to kind of bring the voice of the distributors to the government. Because again, as we've talked about a couple of times, we're really on the front lines, and we're hearing from our customers, and we're seeing what needs to change right at that customer level, in order to enable some of this stuff that's happening so that that conversation between the LDCs and the government I think is really important. So you know, we don't work in a vacuum, I just mentioned a number of stakeholders in our sector. And I highlighted the interconnected nature of our grid at the beginning of our conversation. There are a lot of different players working together to really, at the end goal is bring power to the customer. How do you see the existing model changing or expanding in terms of, you know, the kinds of partnerships that LDCs have moving forward? So you know, you mentioned private equity is being a potential upcoming role. There are things like technology companies that are developing innovative solutions, who, you know, we maybe were a bit more arm's length with in the past. There's a changing nature of our relationship with the customers, you brought up the idea of going from one way power flow to kind of two way back and forth. arrangement. How do you see that partnership evolving in the future?   Teresa Sarkesian  54:30  Well, I think the good news is, there's a very strong foundation knowledge to build on. So, I'm going to talk about three different areas. I'm going to talk about sort of shared services across utilities, and I'll talk about a partnership with the private industry. And I'd like to talk about the engagement with customers as well. So firstly, there's lots of shared services going around in the industry already. There are all kinds of partnerships that members are trying to reduce costs for customers and find the best solution. So instead of saying, having 60 utilities run, seek out the best solution, you know, you get everyone working collaboratively to find a solution at the best price for customers. So, we've seen a lot, just in my 15 years I've been there you've got in the past, there was, you know, common delivery of conservation programs, members work together on common engineering standards, lots of mutual aid assistance agreements across among utilities, for Storm Recovery. I've seen shared billing services, bulk purchasing products, and shared control room practices and services. And I've seen private sector play a much bigger role in utilities, as well. I've had the privilege to attend some openings, and launches of micro grids, where you have maybe a solar company and an energy storage, battery company, that are part of that group with utility, creating a micro grid for their community to provide maybe warming and cooling charging services when there's a major outage, for example. And I've seen now, some smart grids, you know, one that's already been implemented up in the north that has a significant private sector partner. And I've seen it also there's a new one, that's another one in the north, that's going to be developed with a private sector partner. And I've seen, not just Ontario businesses, I've seen what businesses come in one of our members is doing a distribution system operator pilot model with a partner in from Norway. So, I'm really encouraged, I think the foundation is already there to kind of build on all those successes we already have, and do more, you know, and we talked about the customers going forward as well, that they're going to be to help playing a role, or we hope they're going to be playing a role. Because there's a lot of energy, battery storage and solar generation, sort of behind the meter, whether it's a farm, or it's a residential customer, or it's a big industrial customer. And so, we want to be able to optimize all of those resources into the system to be of benefit to all customers to reduce costs. But we'd have to give an incentive to those customers to participate, no one is going to let you know a utility access their, you know, solar panel generation or their battery storage, unless they're going to be getting paid to do so. And I think that's going to be really important going forward, because we don't want to over build the grid, I mean, the grid is going to be so big, going forward. And we have to find ways to avoid over building it. Because we don't want to be in a situation where you know, customers are having to pay too much for a grid that's not properly optimized. So trying to find solutions behind the meter, that will maybe either avoid or delay bigger generation investments or transmission investments, or even actually distribution investments, we want to optimize that. But right now, there's not really a lot of permission to do that. So we need to get that legislative and regulatory permission to do that, to turn those, you know, more passive customers into prosumers, that they're basically your their proactive customers by selling their energy storage back to the grid. So I'm really optimistic. I think we've got a great foundation work to do on the customer peace, letting them participate as prosumers and the system, but I'm pretty optimistic that that we can get that job done.   Trevor Freeman  58:27  Yeah, I think it really highlights, there's a lot to be excited about when it comes to the change, that's going to happen. There's a lot of opportunity out there both for the LDCs, for the other stakeholders for our customers, that this energy transition, this change is going to bring about, you know, there's some challenges to I know, he talked about the challenges. I wonder, though, what do you see, as you know, one of the single biggest are a series of risks to achieving the vision that you've outlined in the paper, how could this go off the rails and not happen the way we need it to happen?   Teresa Sarkesian  59:03  Well, I always like to be glass half full as opposed to half empty, but you're taking me down that road? Trevor? So I'm going to answer that question.   Trevor Freeman  59:11  It's my job.   Teresa Sarkesian  59:11  So you know, obviously, our vision for the future role is big, but it's practical. The energy transition is upon us now. It's not something to contemplate for the future. So we think that the biggest risk is effectively inaction or kind of, you know, kicking the issue down the road, 510 years. We're seeing this right, nearby jurisdictions in the US are taking action. There's been significant funding out of the Biden administration, for all kinds of initiatives from you know, cybersecurity, to grid modernization down there. They're doing they're very competitive. They want to attract businesses, to the US. And so, you know, that's a major competition for Ontario. So if we don't seize the opportunities to kind of start working on these important issues now, we could lose economic development opportunities, we could lose jobs, we could lose investment, we could lose our talent as well, that may want to move to another jurisdiction. So to mitigate that risk, the LDCs, and policymakers have to work together on developing a shared vision around electrification and grid modernization, develop a plan of action and create a realistic timeline to turn that vision into reality.   Trevor Freeman  1:00:26  Yeah, it's a it's a great point. And I think it's important for people to understand that change is happening, the change is going to happen, whether we want it to or not. And, you know, often sometimes people say, Are we are we really going to see this change? I think we're already seeing it, we're already seeing customers want to change the way they interact with energy. The risk here is if we don't react quick enough or properly enough, the costs of that change becomes higher the reliability of the grid that we're working with, goes down, that general customer experience is not where it needs to be. And then you've highlighted some other ones, you know, we can really struggle with talent if we're not offering them the kind of cool innovative roles that they're looking for. But the neighboring jurisdiction is, so it's not so much that the change may or may not happen, it's how do we react to it in a way that really serves all of our stakeholder the best. So, Teresa, this has been a really great conversation. And I really appreciate you taking the time to join us and chat with us today. I think there's a number of things that we talked about today that really set up future conversations I'm going to have nicely. So thanks for the half for teeing that up. And this is your second time on the show. No doubt, there'll be a third time because I think there's a lot more that down the road, we can we can pick apart. So thanks for that. We typically end our interviews here with some common questions to all our guests. So to start off, what is a book that you've read that you think everybody should read?   Teresa Sarkesian  1:01:56  So one I recently enjoyed it's by a friend too. By Darrell Bricker, he wrote Empty Planet, and that is very, very good talks about actually declining global population. And what that means from everything from, you know, businesses to climate change to pension plans. So it's a fascinating read. People have time for it.   Trevor Freeman  1:02:19  Yeah, very cool. I'll check that out. So kind of the same question. What's a movie or a show that you'd recommend to everybody?   Teresa Sarkesian  1:02:24  I watched one a few months ago was a Netflix series called the Blue Zone. And it was an investigation on people who had made it to 100 I think they called Central Jamarion's I can't remember the name. But basically, they interviewed all these people living around the world about what it takes to get to be 100. So I really enjoyed it. It was just, it was just very beautifully done. And the people they talked to, I found fascinating and so interesting. So I really enjoyed it.   Trevor Freeman  1:02:52  Yeah, I also watched that one that was really great. If somebody offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go

Harneet Panesar, Chief Operating Officer of the Ontario Energy Board, joined the podcast in November 2023 for a conversation about the changing world of the energy regulator. We talk about the modernization of the Ontario Energy Board, their increased use of delegated decision making, the importance of speed in decisions, and the move to more customer-centric models. He also shares perspectives on regulation as we move into a net zero paradigm drawing from his experience at the OEB, at Hydro One, and from his academic perch. We end the conversation with a seemingly timeless book recommendation for an addition to the Flux Capacitor Book Club.Links:Ontario Energy Board: https://www.oeb.ca/Harneet Panesar at the OEB: https://www.oeb.ca/about-us/who-we-are/executive-leadership/harneet-panesarHarneet Panesar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harneetp/?originalSubdomain=caElectricity Canada report: Back to Bonbright: Economic Regulation Fundamentals can Enable Net Zero: https://issuu.com/canadianelectricityassociation/docs/ec_sel_frame_-_2023_21_Book recommendation The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making, Scott Plous: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226665.The_Psychology_of_Judgment_and_Decision_Making

C'est une invention d'un jeune Masaï, Richard Turere : ce sont des lumières clignotantes qui fonctionnent à l'énergie solaire et permettent de tenir éloignés les lions. Car les conflits entre communautés pastorales et faune sauvage sont récurrents au Kenya. Mi-mai, le Kenya Wildlife Service, l'Agence kényane de préservation de la nature, tirait la sonnette d'alarme : dix lions avaient été tués en une semaine près du parc d'Amboseli, dans le sud du pays. Les « Lions Lights » sont donc vite devenus populaires. De notre correspondante à Nairobi,La nuit tombe. Vaches et chèvres rentrent de leur journée de pâturage, guidées par les bergers masaï. Ils vivent à Kitengela, en bordure du parc national de Nairobi qui abrite une importante faune sauvage. Une rivière sert de frontière, mais certains endroits sont facilement franchissables, notamment par les lions. Richard Kuyayo en a fait l'expérience. Ce berger d'une soixantaine d'années vit ici depuis 12 ans, avec ces 24 chèvres et 120 vaches.« C'est un sujet d'inquiétude, j'ai déjà perdu des chèvres à trois reprises à cause des lions. Ils viennent régulièrement parce que nous sommes sur leur chemin quand ils sortent du parc national. Le problème, c'est que nous n'avons pas d'autre emploi, il n'y a pas d'agriculture possible, le bétail, c'est notre mode de vie », raconte-t-il.Richard Kuyayo a commencé à utiliser les « Lions Lights », il y a trois ans. Il dit avoir vu une vraie différence : « J'en mets trois de ce côté, deux de ce côté, et trois là-bas. Ces lumières nous ont vraiment aidés à sécuriser l'enclos des animaux. Depuis qu'on les a installés, nous n'avons pas eu d'autres attaques. »Quelques mètres plus loin, des lumières clignotent autour d'un autre enclos. C'est celui où a grandi Richard Turere. Aujourd'hui âgé de 23 ans, le jeune masaï fasciné par les technologies a mis au point ces lions lights à 12 ans.Plus de 2 000 foyers utilisent les « Lions Lights » au Kenya « J'étais en charge de surveiller le troupeau et une nuit, je me suis fait la réflexion que les lions ne venaient pas quand quelqu'un était en train de patrouiller avec une lampe torche, raconte le jeune homme. C'est de là qu'est venue l'idée pour Lions Lights. Les lumières clignotent et imitent ce que ferait une personne en train de marcher de nuit. Les lions ont l'impression que quelqu'un est réveillé et surveille, alors qu'il n'y a personne. »Richard Turere a depuis beaucoup voyagé pour parler de son projet et a fait des études en conservation de l'environnement. En dix ans, l'entreprise Lions Lights a grandi : « Au Kenya en ce moment, il y a un peu plus de 2 000 foyers qui utilisent nos lumières. Mais l'on trouve aussi des "Lions Lights" en Tanzanie, au Botswana, au Zimbabwe, en Zambie et depuis récemment, en Argentine. Ce projet, qui a commencé tout petit, a vraiment pris de l'ampleur ! C'est parce que nous n'avons pas le choix : les humains doivent apprendre à coexister avec la faune sauvage, sinon l'un des deux finit par souffrir. »Passionné par la protection des animaux, Richard Turere voit grand pour Lions Lights. La mise au point d'un système automatisé notamment où les lumières s'allumeraient lorsqu'un prédateur est détecté autour des enclos. Pour son invention, Richard Turere a été nommé parmi les trois finalistes du Prix des jeunes inventeurs de l'Office européen des brevets (OEB). Un prix qui récompense de jeunes innovateurs et innovatrices de 30 ans ou moins qui ont développé des solutions technologiques pour s'attaquer aux enjeux mondiaux de développement durable. Le résultat sera annoncé le 4 juillet.À lire aussiAu Kenya, une start-up propose un système de capture de carbone

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #207 EJET. Neste episódio conversamos com João Marinheiro (Gerente de Flight Standards) e Mirella Zambelli (Coordenadora de Flight Standards EJET) sobre as últimas atualizações na frota EJET. Abordamos o acionamento mandatório dos dois motores antes do início do táxi na frota E2, o novo MTOW para este equipamento e o OEB 25 que traz a recomendação da PW para subida no regime CLB-2, comentamos a nova revisão do B-OPS-027 na condição de uma Bleed inoperante nas operações do E1, as questões envolvendo o novo callout de pitch da aeronave durante o flare, e, por fim, trouxemos as novidades da operação do E2 no SDU e as certificações em andamento na frota. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

  Canada is at the forefront of the global energy transition, leading with the goal to be net zero by 2050. To get there, the electricity sector must be decarbonized by 2035, from coast-to-coast, province-to-territory. So what does that transition look like close to home? How will customers be impacted in the near future? The Ontario Energy Board's Harneet Panesar, Chief Operating Officer, and Carolyn Calwell, Chief Corporate Services Officer & General Counsel, share their insight on thinkenergy episode 108.   Related links   Carolyn Calwell, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-calwell-648318b0/ Harneet Panesar, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harneetp/ Ontario Energy Board: https://www.oeb.ca/ Engage with Us, OEB digital engagement platform: https://engagewithus.oeb.ca/ Energy Exchange: https://www.energy-exchange.net/ Adjudicative Modernization Committee: https://www.oeb.ca/stakeholder-engagement/stakeholder-engagement/adjudicative-modernization-committee   To subscribe using Apple Podcasts To subscribe using Spotify To subscribe on Libsyn --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: YouTube Check out our cool pics on Instagram More to Learn on Facebook Keep up with the Tweets on Twitter --------- Transcript: Dan Seguin  00:06 This is ThinkEnerfy, the podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, as I explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey, everyone, welcome back. The world is going through a major energy transition driven by a multitude of reasons. political policy, economic prosperity, environmental urgency, social change, Greta Thornburg, technological advancements and innovation to name just a few. Canada is at the forefront of the energy transition movement and certainly seen as a leader on the world stage thanks to its aggressive target, to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Of course, the country's other closer Net Zero target is the decarbonisation of the electricity sector by 2035. emissions free electricity grids in every province, and territories across Canada in just under 12 years. For many provinces and utilities, the race to transition their energy sectors began years ago, in Ontario, where the electricity grid is already more than 90% emissions free. This was in part due to the provincial shutdown of all coal plants between 2005 and 2014. It's no longer business as usual for energy providers, how we've operated for more than 100 years is neither viable nor sustainable. It's becoming clearer and clearer that for the Net Zero future to be reality, we must go further, still eliminating and remaining emissions from our provincial grid to make wait for the electrification of our grid, our vehicles and yes, our houses and buildings. But with all of the unknowns in our evolving energy future, there needs to be a steady hand to help guide the way forward. Enter the provincial regulator, the Ontario Energy Board, energy utilities are more closely regulated than many other industries because of their unique characteristic surrounding energy supply, and delivery. So here is today's big question. Given that the electrical grid needs to be emission free by 2035, what does the energy transition look like here at home in Ontario? What can customers expect in the near future? Today, my special guests are Carolyn Calwell, Chief Corporate Service Officer and General Counsel, and Harneet Panesar, Chief Operating Officer of the Ontario Energy Board. Welcome to the show, Carolyn. And perhaps you can start by telling us a bit about yourselves, your background, and why you chose to join the Ontario Energy Board.   Carolyn Calwell  03:39 Thanks, Dan. I'm a lawyer by training. I started off in private practice at a big firm and then I moved into the public sector, first at the municipal level and later at the provincial level. Shortly after I began working for the Ontario Provincial Government, I got into energy when that ministry merged with the one I was hired to. And that gave me the opportunity to work on the energy file in progressively senior legal positions, while also serving some other ministries. I eventually became an assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Energy with a broad portfolio that touched on things like distribution, transmission, agency oversight, indigenous energy policy issues, all kinds of things, lots of fun with a lot of challenging files, and always with great people to work with. So then, when the restructuring of the EOEB came along, I got excited about where the OEB  was gonna go. On a personal level, I saw an opportunity to work on things from both policy and legal perspectives as the chief Corporate Services Officer and General Counsel. And I saw the chance to learn some new skills in the corporate services side of things. And I also saw an opportunity to learn the role of the regulator and get a new perspective on files I'd worked on. So most enticing though, was the opportunity to make some changes a lot like her nude, so I was thrilled by the opportunity to come over.   Harneet Panesar  04:54 Alright, thanks, Dan. So in terms of my background, maybe I'll open it up by saying you know, Today as we talk, I'm hoping to bring three different perspectives, and three different hats that I can wear. And the first one is that a utility, you know, I've spent about 14 years working for Hydro oOne, which is Ontario's largest transmission and distribution company. And I did nine different roles across the organization. And most recently, just before I left, I was Director of Strategy and Integrated Planning. My team looked after the investment plan, the overall capital that the utility was looking to spend, I had the strategy Research and Development Innovation team. And I also had a team that focused on reliability, which is a very important outcome for utility. So we focused on metrics benchmarking studies, and I had a really cool team. I'm an engineer by background. So I find this fascinating, I had a team that did post event investigations. So when equipment fields, we bring in massive cranes, pull them out, and dissect them to see what went wrong, and try and see if there's any systematic issues that we could look to solve across the system. I also had a team that looked after the modernization of the joint use portfolio, which is the use of the poles that are looking to attach other things aside from electricity, infrastructure, it could be things like fiber and telecommunication things or other things that, you know, cities and municipalities might want to attach to poles. And lastly, we also looked after secondary land use for hydro and corridors and pathways for things like parking, lots, parks, pathways, things like that. In June of 2021, I got a phone call about the opportunity at the Ontario Energy Board to join as Chief Operating Officer. And really, it was about modernizing the regulators. And the value proposition of that was huge. And it was just something I can see, it was exciting to know that that was taking place with someone who's in industry. And I saw some of the work that Susanna was doing. And so it was a no brainer. It was something that I wanted to do. And so I joined the Ontario Energy Board June of 2021. And so I'll bring the regulator perspective, obviously, in the conversation. And the third perspective is that of academia, I've been teaching energy, energy innovation, energy storage courses to Master's students, at the university level. And I think it's important when we talk about energy, we look across borders, we don't just get confined with current practices or policies or rules and regulations. Sometimes when we're trying to explore innovative ideas, we need to broaden that scope. And so I'll look to sometimes also bring in some of the academic view of what's happening in this space, too. So those are sort of three perspectives and from our background.   Dan Seguin  07:22 So, Carolyn, for those that don't know, what is the Ontario Energy Board, and what does your organization do?   Carolyn Calwell  07:33 the Ontario Energy Board, or the OE B is the independent regulator of Ontario's electricity and natural gas sectors. An important part of our mandate is to inform consumers and protect their interests with respect to prices, reliability, and quality of electricity and natural gas services. We have oversight over roughly 60% of the electricity bill, and we influence a large part of natural gas bills. We work closely with companies that work in the sector, distributors, transmitters, generators, and with associations like the Ontario Energy Association, the Electricity Distributors Association, CHEC. And of course, with the Independent Electricity System Operator and the Ministry of Energy, we're really just one piece of a much bigger puzzle.   Dan Seguin  08:13 Harneet, there's been a lot of discussion lately about the energy transition in our industry. What does that mean? Exactly? And how will the Ontario Energy Board support the transition?   Harneet Panesar  08:31 Sure, and maybe I can begin this one by even just focusing on the word energy transition, you know, it sounds nice and clear, cotton sounds like there's a linear glide path to this transition, that's going to happen. But you know, it's multifaceted. It's very complex, huge capital dollars are going to be required, it's gonna be a need for a lot of collaboration and how we move forward on it. So it's a very complex transition that's underway right now. And let me also talk to you about it. From what are some of the drivers, you know, a lot of times we talk about transition, we talk about the innovation behind it. And we also focus on what are the catalysts behind some of this change? And we often frame our conversation using four D's and I know in the industry, there's a debate whether there's three days or five, I think we've taken middle ground here, so let's go with our four D's. So the first one is Decarbonisation. You know, as you look globally, or you look federally you look even down to the consumer level, there are commitments being made and choices that are deliberately being made with regards to emissions and and a goal and targets that are being said with regards to decarbonisation. One of the sectors that I know that's going to be really impacted by this is transportation. They have the ability to make some significant changes in terms of the release of greenhouse gasses, and we're seeing a massive shift from combustion engines to EVs (electric vehicles). And so what does that mean? That means a huge need for electricity to also feed these. And maybe I'll also just take a pause and say that, you know, when I talk to other jurisdictions in Ontario, we're quite fortunate, a lot of our generation here is non-emitting, about over 90% of our generation is not emitting. And sometimes we take that for granted, you know, I talked to some of our colleagues down south, or even across the country, they can only dream to get to where we're at in the near future. We're pretty lucky to be where we are from that perspective. And so when we look at what we need to fuel these vehicles, we're going to need a grid that has the ability to supply this type of demand. So what is the EOB doing about it? There's a couple of things. The first one is we've got a couple of industry working groups that are really helping to lead the charge on making clear decisions on what is the process, you do some of this stuff. One of them is the DER connection review workgroup. And I'm excited to say that, you know, we've, we've broken up this work into tranches, and we've made some substantive releases already on changes that we've proposed to our distribution system code. These are really there to help reduce burdens, and, and really help bring on adoption of things like EVs. And I should also back up and just say, you know, when I talk about DER connections, DER stands for Distributed Energy Resources and EVs fall within that category, too. We also know that the grid will need to be able to supply this power, we have a working group called the Regional Planning Working Group that is focused on making sure that regions have what they need to be able to supply this type of energy. And that includes providing them guidance with what they need to look at when it comes to planning for that future. And how do we fill that all in? Well, we also updated our filing requirements. And so our filing requirements are really there to articulate to applicants that come forward to the Ontario Energy Board with their applications to say, look, this is what we need from you. And we've been pretty clear that we've updated our requirements to include things like electric vehicle integration, adoption, into their load forecasting and planning, we need to make sure that utilities are putting the building for the load that's required, based on the Evie adoption in the province. The next D is Digitalization. No, back in the day, our distribution system was just poles and wires, and maybe some fuses. But it's become a lot more complicated. We've deployed a lot more grid modernization in the system, a lot more innovation, and a lot more non-wires, alternatives, and different ways of investing in solving problems that the grid was having. And so what role does the Ontario Energy Board have in that? Well, number one, prudency is something that we expect utilities to take into account when they're building out their investment plans. So we're to check for prudency and make sure that the liability service quality and cost is all kept in mind. The other aspect is, you know, as we digitize the system, there are other risks that come with it, and we need to make sure we're managing them. There are new risk factors that get created from a cybersecurity perspective. And obviously, the Ontario Energy Board plays an important role. You know, we established the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee a number of years back that helped build Ontario's cybersecurity framework, which is something we expect utilities to look at, and also report annually on how they are ready and mature to respond to detect and deal with cybersecurity threats. The last two days, and maybe I'll just kind of shorten this by bringing them together. It's around decentralization and democratization. But the role of consumers is changing. And the investments and the choices that they're making are also changing. You know, the fact that you can go to a shopping mall and go pick up an Eevee, and maybe even a battery pack. These are, by definition, consumer products. Now, they're no longer utility grade investments, like Pull Top investments, switch gears, things like that, the role that they're playing is important. And so going back to our DER. Working Group, it's important that we make sure that we look at the integration of these types of consumer choices into our grid. So that's, that's maybe a roundabout way of looking at all of our structures and the innovation that's taking place and the catalysts that are fueling the energy transition there.   Dan Seguin  13:53 Carolyn, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you believe is driving the energy transition.   Carolyn Calwell  14:00 Thanks, Dan. I see this largely the same way Harneet sees it, but I would say it maybe a little bit differently. I agree that the four Ds are the catalyst for the energy transition decarbonisation and the move to net zero emissions, the need to deal with and respond to climate change. Digitalization in my mind reflects the growing internet of things and the need for new tools and technologies that allow us to use energy differently. We've talked about decentralization and Harneet mentioned the move away from grid scale, utility planning to decentralized resources, whatever technology or weather wherever they may sit on this system. And her need also mentioned democratization about the changing expectations of customers and their relationship with energy. And in my mind, that just leads to increasing customer choice. So, you know, I think there's tremendous opportunity in all of this, and of course, tremendous challenge. But I think what's exciting is that there's broad consensus that this is a time of extreme change, and there's an imperative to actually make that change. So at the end of the day, it's pretty exciting.   Dan Seguin  15:05 Okay, our need, what does the electric future look like from an industry perspective, and from a customer perspective?   Harneet Panesar  15:15 So let me first look at the customer perspective. And maybe even the term customer, I think, is looking to evolve. As we look at energy markets around the world, we know that consumer choices and how consumers interact with their energy is changing. And even the role of consumers is changing. You know, the term prosumer is also one that is often used in which consumers aren't just consuming power, but they're producing them. And so therefore, the Pro and the prosumer. You know, that's an important aspect of how the grid may evolve. And we're certainly seeing changes in perspective, talked about decarbonisation, just a few minutes ago, that will also create a higher dependency of reliable power while managing costs. So you know, going back to our discussion around EVs, you know, nowadays, if there are reliability issues, utilities will get phone calls. And you know, that hear about power, power off situations where the lights aren't working, or ice cream is melting, or the air conditioner just isn't going. But just imagine the dependency that gets created when you know, I've got to go to work the next morning, and I couldn't go because I couldn't charge my vehicle, you know, the dependency on the grid is gonna grow. But I think there are a lot of opportunities in this type of environment. Also, you know, if Carolyn, for example, is working from home and doesn't need her vehicle, well, maybe I can take 20% of her battery, and then perhaps you're on vacation, and maybe you don't need part of your vehicle, I could maybe take 30% of your battery, you know, I've got 50% of the charge. And now I've got an opportunity to actually use my vehicle. The shifting of how sort of load and suppliers is going to be looked at on the distribution side, I think is exciting. We're seeing a lot of these micro grids around the world interact on these sort of transactive markets. But at the end of the day, you know, the value proposition for consumers is shifting look, I've now got a vehicle that has charge and lets me get to where I need to go. And both you and Carolyn have now gotten some dollars in your pockets for helping me out by supplying some of the energy that you didn't need. This is a real shift. I think that's happening from the consumer perspective and multiple different facets. From the industry perspective, I think we're going to need a lot of help and dependencies on industry to help guide us through this energy transition, you know, there's a lot of capital that is going to need to be spent, there's going to be a lot of steel that's going to be required for Transformers or pole tops, and, and even steel towers and conductors, there's a lot that's going to be required from a supply chain perspective. But there's also growth, I mean, this is an opportunity, there's a lot of growth that's going to take place in the economy for jobs. And we also know that there's gonna be industry in terms of labor markets, to be able to help supply and build the infrastructure that we're going to need for the future. And that includes maybe in adapting some of the skill sets. And I've been speaking to colleges and universities over the last year, and they've been asking, you know: what does the energy industry need in terms of the skills or the shortages? Is there an evolution of the skills that are required, and with all the transition and change that are taking place? I think the labor markets are also important to us to make sure that they're up to speed with helping us get to where we need to be. I think the last aspect maybe I'll cover off in terms of the industry is, I think there's a lot of new players that are entering the energy market, which we haven't seen traditionally, in the past. I've talked about automotive manufacturers moving away from combustion engines to electric vehicles. I think they're going even further by opening up subsidiaries focusing on energy. It's a pretty bold move for the automotive industry to be forming these massive subsidiaries. But even on the technology side, you know, we're seeing companies like Microsoft take stronger and larger positions within energy. So I think we're seeing a shift. And even in industry, I think we're seeing a lot of new players that are joining in.   Dan Seguin  18:52 Okay, so what's the greatest risk to the electricity grid, Harneet?   Harneet Panesar  18:57 So when I think about risk, and you know, I often reflect on that word, because I think when you look at risk, it usually is a reason for why adoption of things like innovation just gets repeated. And even in the energy industry, we've got a wide variety of entities that have different risk appetites. And some of them, you know, stakeholders, shareholders, customers may not be looking to them to take the greatest risk. But what we do know is that there are entities that thrive on the risk reward model. And I think it's important that we look at risk blending, we talk about risk. And why do I bring this all up? The need for collaboration is so important when we talk about moving forward in this transition. You know, in Ontario, I'd say we've got the most complex energy market in North America. I've got 800 Almost licensed entities, and I've got 60 local distribution companies fairly complex that's on the electricity. And we've also got gas distributors. It's fairly complex. So in terms of what is the one of the greatest risks I think alignment and how we move forward. The risk in this would be misalignment. You know, there's no room to backpedal, we need to collaborate and work together and make sure that there's no room to backpedal, and that we move forward collaboratively. So misalignment, I think, could be a risk, but we're making sure we're doing whatever we can. And I know there's various entities within the energy sector that are trying to make sure we're working together, you know, we're holding hands and might be taking penguin steps to make sure we don't slip here. But I think when you hold hands, we'll get a bit more firmness. And we can take bigger, bigger steps forward.   Dan Seguin  20:33 Harneet, what kinds of major investments and other considerations need to be made to deliver the energy transition to the province?   Harneet Panesar  20:43 So when I look at some of the studies that have just recently passed, the IESO released their Pathway studies. And we know that when they looked at generation and transmission, it's gonna require hundreds of billions of dollars, some fairly substantial investments on that front, the other side to this whole thing, and going back to the sort of consumer side is, you know, the tail end of the delivery of power is also going to require a huge influx of dollars. So the distribution system is going to require a lot, I will say that, you know, within our province, you know, we've got a lot of aging infrastructure that we also need to deal with. So it's not just about the forward move around the energy transition, but we also need to look at the assets that we have, the age of them, the condition of them, and really make sure that as we're spending the money, we're still holding things up. While we're also moving forward. You know, there's a lot of advancements in the system, in terms of the dollars that we've spent on the distribution system, primarily, I'd say, on deployment of capital open fields. But we're also seeing a lot of shifts on how some of that technology is now being utilized out into distribution systems. I know that, you know, we talked about dependency on the system. The minister has also asked us as part of his letter of direction to us to help provide recommendations going forward on resiliency and responsiveness and cost efficiency. And I think that's an important consideration that we need to look at when we build out capital plans and look at how we're going to build out the future. Extreme weather events are impacting our grid and energy system, the infrastructure, so the energy systems are vulnerable to that. And we need to make sure that we're resilient and we're able to respond to things like that. And lastly, you know, the other aspect around a lot of the investments that we just talked about, again, is around cybersecurity and the importance of making sure that we're ready for any of those types of issues too.   Dan Seguin  22:28 Carolyn, I read that the Ontario Energy Board's new legislated mandate is to facilitate innovation in the energy sector. How will you do that?   Carolyn Calwell  22:41 A mandate to facilitate innovation with regard to electricity was added to our legislative objectives in 2020. And this put innovation squarely in the mix for us. I thought it signaled to the energy sector a need to take new approaches to doing business, and to think about the services they provide to customers. And it signaled to the OEB that we also need to think about new approaches and new ways to do business. And so we've tried to do that through programs like our innovation sandbox, where we've encouraged local distribution companies to come to us with ideas about how they want to make change, and to test those ideas out in a safe regulatory environment where we can talk through the barriers and hurdles that they face or that they perceive to see what what really stands in their way. We've tried to do this through work like ours in our framework for energy innovation, where we asked the sector to come together to talk about distributed energy resources and how we go about dealing with the questions that they pose. What does it mean for utilities to use them? What barriers are there? So we've tried to take new approaches to having conversations about different types of innovation, and to encourage others to come to us to talk about these things. The change to our objective occurred at the same time as a restructuring of the governance of the OEB. And I think that really underscored for us our change mandate. But when we talk about innovation, our Chief Commissioner would remind me, very wisely Anderson, that our objective has always existed in balance. So innovation is never our only driver. It's one of several others, which include informing consumers and protecting their interests, promoting economic efficiency and cost effectiveness across the sector, and promoting electricity conservation and demand management. So there's a lot going on for us and for everyone in the sector in addition to innovation.   Dan Seguin  24:36 Okay, now, let's talk about the Innovation Task Force. With the report now released, where does it all go from here? Can regulation and innovation coexist and even flourish?   Carolyn Calwell  24:53 I think regulation and innovation have to coexist. We've been talking about change a lot this afternoon. I I don't think we have any choice. But to innovate. Our innovation task force was about strategy and governance, and this was an initiative by our board of directors to ask about disruptive change in the sector and its implications. And to make sure that the OEB was positioned to prepare for that change. The work involved jurisdictional scanning, looking at broad disruptive technologies and trends across the globe, and to look at what other regulators were doing about it. And that certainly provided inspiration for us. And at the same time, we curated experts working at global national and provincial levels to help us understand disruption in the sector, what they were seeing and what they were working on. So all of that informed the strategy that our Innovation Task Force adopted. And what we're trying to do with that is now map out what the OEB is doing about the energy transition. We've got a lot of projects and go and a lot of things that touch the energy transition, but don't necessarily do that directly. People need to understand how those fit together, and how they actually get at the big policy question of the day. What are we doing about climate change and about the energy transition? So what we've tried to do through our engagement with our website is map out the different projects, how they come together, and what people can expect about where they're going. If listeners haven't checked it out, I really encourage you to look at the OED "Engage with us" web page and see all that we have going on and what the next steps are across these projects. There's no shortage of work here. And we're asking a lot of people to come together to meet with us and try to make it work.   Dan Seguin  26:33 Harneet, on the topic of electric vehicles (EVs), what about supporting mass EV adoption? What can you tell us about the proposed ultra low overnight price plan for electricity? And how will it help get more EVs on the road?   Harneet Panesar  26:52 Sure. Thanks, Dan. And when we look at things like ultra low overnight price plans, I think it's also important for us to reflect on the fact that I think I'm sure he's made some good choices in terms of deploying the right capital. Over the years, you know, we sometimes take for granted that we have what is known as AMI, which is Advanced Meter Infrastructure. The fact that we have smart meters deployed across the province, is huge, because it enables us to do things like these price plans. You know, I talked about other jurisdictions, not everyone has smart meters like we do, and therefore don't have the ability to actually even implement price plans. But let me tell you why it's important and why having some of these plans is helpful. Utilities often build to meet peak demand, whenever the demand is there, they're trying to make sure that they have the infrastructure required to meet it. And by introducing pricing plans, which create the right incentives and choices that can help leave to sort of behavioral changes from a consumer perspective, that will ultimately also help utilities manage how they build their system. And what that means is they'll be able to not just build the peak but better manage peaks. You know, if we're able to utilize the system when it's not at peak or it's not fully utilized, there's available capacity generation available. There's no bottlenecks in the system. That's when we want people to use power. And so generally, you know, overnight is when the system is a little bit quieter, and we're able to actually, you know, supply a lot more power. And so for folks like myself, who have an electric vehicle, you know, I have no problems charging overnight. In fact, it's fantastic. And having the right incentives to keep people charging overnight means that we take any additional peaks on the system during the day that might occur away. And ultimately, that also means that it helps keep rates lower, because utilities don't need to invest additional capacity, because they're better able to manage when people are consuming their power. So price plans like the ultra low overnight plan is one way of curbing the behavior and incentivizing sort of the right approach on when we want people to be using the grid to feed things like their electric vehicles.   Dan Seguin  29:03 Okay, now, how does natural gas fit into the energy transition to a carbon free future in the province? What strides are being made in the natural gas sector or Harneet?   Harneet Panesar  29:18 So I think it's an important question. And it's something that we think about quite often at the Ontario Energy Board. You know, natural gas has a lot of potential to replace some of the higher emitting fossil fuel energy sources that are still being used for mostly industrial processes here in Ontario. And to maybe give you an example, you know, one of our natural gas distributors is working with steel mills, to try and replace some of their coal usage with natural gas, which would also bring down some of their greenhouse gas emissions. But you know, when you talk about Net Zero and sort of the net zero future, it's obviously going to involve things like large reductions and even eventually eliminating the GHG emissions from the US to greenhouse gasses, and that's gonna require a couple of things. It's gonna require a combination of energy conservation, some electrification, carbon capture and storage, and even a shift to use things like orangey, which is renewable natural gas, and even other new fuels like hydrogen. There's already work that's underway. Enbridge has been investing about $120 million a year. And this is really around some of the conservation programs. And we also just had a recent decision that the will be rendered. And in that we're going to increase the amounts that are going to be spent. And this is also going to include a new home energy efficiency program that's going to be offered by Enbridge gas, and it's going to be in partnership with Enercon, which is Natural Resources Canada, you know, thinking about what are the next steps, the OEB has also convened a group of experts to help identify and evaluate future opportunities for natural gas conservation. And really, finally, I just want to make sure, I know, acknowledge that, you know, millions of residential, commercial industrial consumers, we've got three and a half million gas consumers who depend on natural gas to heat their homes and run their businesses. And the OEB is going to continue to support these consumers by ensuring natural gas is delivered to them safely, reliably and responsibly.   Dan Seguin  31:14 Okay, again, this one's for you Harneet. Ontario is Canada's most populated province, can you tell us a bit about how you ensure Ontarian voices are heard, and included in your decision making?   Harneet Panesar  31:30 Yeah, so we've got 5 million electricity consumers I just mentioned, we've got three and a half natural gas consumers. So we've got a fairly large consumer base. And it's really important that we hear what Ontarians have to say. And so we've done a couple of things. And let me run you through them. The first one Carolyn, alluded to earlier, which was around making sure people could engage with us, we actually opened up a new platform and launched it, and it's called engage with us. And if you ever wanted to join it, just Google, we'd be engaged with us. And it really lays out all the various initiatives and work streams and programs that the Ontario Energy Board is undertaking. It gives timelines, it has documents, it even has a friendly smile of some of our staff that are helping lead the work along with their emails, so you can contact and reach out to us, it's one way of us making sure that we're transparent about all the work we're doing. And we're engaging with tumors, and taking in any input that they may have. So that's one way the other, the other piece that I think is really important is listening to the customers themselves. About a year ago, just shortly after I joined the Ontario Energy Board, I started a program called voice of the customer. And it was an important program for me, because one of the one of the teams that I have within my shop is responsible for the call center, they take in the calls, the emails, and the chats. And it's one thing to see all that data on a dashboard, or you know, in a PowerPoint slide deck, it's another thing to actually get on the horn and actually hear the voices of consumers, understand their sentiment, hear the emotion, hear their voices. And it was really important for me to be able to do that. And so we set up this program, and it's a monthly occurrence in which myself and my peers, the executive team, we get on the call, and we hear the voice of the customers, we hear what they're saying to us. And so that's one other way that we connect with our consumers. The other thing I'll note is that, you know, our adjudication process is a public process. And, you know, we look forward to having Ontarians participate in that we do also have consumer interest groups, part of that. But we also look to utilities to make sure that as they're building out their plans, that they're engaging with consumers, they also have a role to engage with them and make sure that they're delivering what consumers want. I'll also just put in a bit of a plug that, you know, I talked a little bit about our call center that handles the calls and emails and chats, we get almost 10,000 interactions. And these are really important data points for us. And you know, I created a part of the organization about a year ago called Operation Decision Support, to really help us make data driven decisions. And so collecting information from our calls is very vital. But the point I want to make is that we also have a chat function, which also won an award about a year, year and a half ago. And it's not fed by robots. It's actually the same agents that would also pick up your calls and also respond to emails. So the message you get is very aligned and consistent. We're very proud of, you know, our ways of being able to communicate with our consumers.   Harneet Panesar  34:19 Okay, now it's your turn, Carolyn, let's talk about the OEB's two stakeholder committees. What are the energy exchange and adjudication of the modernization committee all about?   Carolyn Calwell  34:34 Our stakeholders are critical to us. And so we've made some deliberate efforts to create structures to engage them. Energy Exchange is a form of CEOs and senior leaders. And it's really a tremendous platform where we receive advice about our priorities and direction. We've tried to use that forum, not just to talk to people but to hear from and to engage them on questions. Is that we're struggling with? What should we focus on? How should we go about our work? What matters to them, because it's important that the regulator, not just tell everybody what to do, but also listen to the sector that we work in. So this advice has been really critical for us. And it's really helped us on work, for instance, around the letter of direction that we received from the minister, as we've tried to figure out how to unpack that letter, to figure out what the priorities are within it, and how to actually deliver against it. The adjudication modernization committee is made up of regulatory experts, and they give us advice and provide feedback on all things that you indicate from rules of practice and procedure and filing requirements, to advice about intervenors. This has a specific focus to consider best practices and approaches to adjudication. And what's particularly helpful I think about this group is that they have a direct line with the Chief Commissioner. So it's a way for her to talk to stakeholders, and hear about what matters to them on what happens in the hearing room, and everything that goes around. So these are just two examples of how we engage with our stakeholders. But we value tremendously the various working groups, forums, meetings that we call that people participate in, because we know we ask a lot of people we know we demand a lot of their time and a lot of their thinking. But this is all part of the communication that we need on the two way street, so to speak. And, and we really do value everything that people give us in these various forms.   Dan Seguin  36:31 SoI'll ask you both. What is Ontario doing right, right now, that gives you hope, either provincially, or from the energy sector itself?   Carolyn Calwell  36:47 I'll jump in on though, you know, we've spent the afternoon talking about some of the challenges that the energy sector faces and that, you know, that really society faces. And these are big, big challenges, daunting tasks ahead of us. But what gives me hope is that there are some tremendously smart people in our sector and a real commitment to work together. So we're all in this together, we all have a role to play. And I truly believe that we'll make progress.   Harneet Panesar  37:19 Well, I totally agree with Carolyn. I mean, you know, this notion of collaboration coming together and working together, I think we're doing a lot of things right. From that perspective, even this podcast, you know, being here and talking to you and connecting with your listeners, hopefully, that brings a bit of a circle back to us and people reaching back out to us, we need to, you know, no one can be operating in a black box, you need to collaborate and work together. The only other thing, maybe I'll say, in terms of what we're doing what we're doing, right, and I'm going to put on my proud Canadian engineering hat on here and say, look, we've been pioneers in the energy space for decades, you know, when it came to hydroelectric generation in southern Ontario, to even the CANDU nuclear reactors, I think Canadians have been doing a lot to pioneer push the energy sector forward. And you know, advancements and technologies even like SMRs, I think is, is a proud moment for Canadians and leading the charge and how energy is now sort of delivered, you know, bringing energy sources closer to where they're being consumed. And these are game changing types of investments and technologies that, you know, Ontario is making. So definitely a lot of things, things of pride. And I think a lot of things that we're doing right, Dan,   Dan Seguin  38:23 Carolyn, and Harneet, we always end our interviews with some rapid fire questions.Are you ready?   Carolyn Calwell  38:33 Ready to go.   Dan Seguin  38:36 Harneet, maybe you could start us off by telling us what you're reading right now?   Harneet Panesar  38:42 Okay, well, I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that every night I read Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig for bedtime. That's not my bedtime at someone else's bedtime. But in terms of myself when I put my feet up. Now I just picked up a book. It's not new on the shelf. It's just new to me. I haven't had a chance to really go through it, but it's a book by Rupi Kaur or R-u-p-i, last names core K-A-u-R. And it's a political novel and the book is called The Sun and Her Flowers.   Dan Seguin  39:09 Okay,what about you, Carolyn?   Carolyn Calwell  39:11 I'm reading some essays from MFK. Fisher in the Art of Eating. It's fantastic. Very funny.   Dan Seguin  39:19 Okay, Carolyn, who is someone that you truly admire?   Carolyn Calwell  39:24 Retired Chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin has to top my list.   Dan Seguin  39:27 And what about you, Harneet? Who do you truly admire?   Harneet Panesar  39:32 I would say it would be my 99 year old grandfather, who was a retired Air Force engineer from the Royal Indian Air Force who lived a very colorful life full of incredible stories and journeys. And as always a source of inspiration for me.   Dan Seguin  39:51 Okay, we've all been watching a lot more Netflix and TV lately. What are some of your favorite movies or shows?   40:01 For me, Madness is coming up. So my TV is dedicated to women's NCAA basketball.   40:08 I'm a bit of a foodie. And I have a bit of a travel bug. So I like traveling and eating. And so there's a series called Somebody Feed Phil, which brings sort of traveling and food together and a little bit of comedy. So it's a nice casual watch. So we've been watching a lot of that.   Dan Seguin  40:23 Lastly, Harneet, what is exciting you about your industry right now?   Harneet Panesar  40:30 For me, it's changed. And, you know, maybe I'm a creature of change. It's sort of where I thrive. But it's exciting to see us move forward and in the directions we are in. So for me, change is really what's exciting. I'm proud to be part of it. I'm looking forward to what the future brings with it.   Dan Seguin  40:50 Okay, what about you, Carolyn, what's exciting you?   Carolyn Calwell  40:54 I couldn't agree with Harneet more, change is exciting. I think there's a tremendous opportunity ahead of us. I think we're gonna see the world shift, and I'm eager to be part of it.   Dan Seguin  41:04 Well, Carolyn, and Harneet. This is it. We've reached the end of another episode of The Think Energy podcast. If our listeners want to learn more about you, or your organization, how can they connect?   Carolyn Calwell  41:20 They can find us on LinkedIn or at OEB.ca. And we're eager to hear from everybody.   Dan Seguin  41:28 Again, thank you both so much for joining me today. I hope you had a lot of fun.   Carolyn Calwell  41:34 Thank you so much for having us.   Dan Seguin  41:38 Thanks for tuning in for another episode of the Think Energy podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests or previous episodes, visit thinkenergypodcast.com I hope you will join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.      

For Episode 31, I was able to sit down with a real Humboldt County legend, Case aka mentaLCAse from LCA the Lower Class Alcoholics. Case talked about how LCA came up learning the game from scratch, pre-computers and analog. He lays out the cats that were doing it in his crew and how they came together - it started as a tagging crew and was never a planned thing... a totally organic rise in Humboldt County. There were honestly more shout outs on this one than any other episode, and a lost of history that Case brought to the podcast. Shouts to Jimbo, OEB, DJ Saco, shoutouts to so many people that helped make LCA possible. Case got into the growth and growing pains that LCA went through over the years. Case talked about holding himself to a high standard in the moves he was making. He talked about his work with Eli Fowler on one of my favorites, the Howie Dootis project. He talked about so many different aspects of the scene. Case talked about how he used to smoke with the best of em but doesn't smoke anymore and how that has changed his life and his creative process. We moved the conversation around and I asked Case what era of Hip Hop was his favorite. Case is a true hip hop historian, has a seriously legit vault, and holds a great wealth of hip hop in his head and his heart. Towards the end of this first part of my interview with Case, we got into social media talk, MySpace, and how you have to use these digital platforms to get out there nowadays. It's always a good conversation when someone knows a lot about the game and this was seriously a dope one laying out a lot of Humboldt County Hip Hop history. Don't miss Part 1 of my conversation with mentaLCAse, with Part 2 coming later this month. Thanks to Case for his time and thanks to the listeners for tuning in as always! Stay tuned --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hiphophumboldt/support

Today we are chatting with Rachel Stange, hair stylist and owner of Free Bird Hair Design about how she fell into the hair industry, the journey of salon ownership, the importance of connection and creating safe, intimate + inclusive spaces for clients. We talk about how she is navigating the grieving process and emotional journey of separating from her business partner, in conjunction wth stepping into an exciting new solo business venture. Rachel shares about her passion for education, how she is leaning into her niche and specializing in doing what she loves, busting hair myths, and sharing the MUST HAVE products we all need. PLUS: How travelling the world feeds her creativity and inspiration in her work, the decade that inspires her the most, and her go-to self care methods. Follow Rachel on IG here -> @rachelstange Follow Free Bird Hair Design on IG here -> @freebirdhairdesign Checkout Free Bird's website: https://www.freebirdhairdesign.com Follow OEB Breakfast Co on IG here -> @oeb_breakfast Find an OEB near you or checkout their website here: https://eatoeb.com Follow the podcast on IG here -> @its.her.podcast Checkout all our links here -> HER links

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #171 A330. Neste episódio conversamos com Arthur Lechmann (Coordenador de Flight Standards A330) sobre as últimas atualizações da frota A330. Falamos sobre a Diretriz de Aeronavegabilidade da EASA contemplando a High Pressure Valve (HPV), do OEB 55, da verificação do nível de óleo para voos ETOPS, lembramos da modificação na política de mensagem Flight Watch, das tabelas de DOW disponíveis na aba Additional do QRH, e, por fim, das atribuições quanto aos callouts durante uma descida de emergência. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #166 A320/A321. Neste episódio conversamos com Pedro Raposo (Coordenador de Flight Standards A320/A321) e Bárbara Alday (Assistente de Flight Standards A320/A321) sobre o histórico de implementação do OEB 59 e a atualização do ELAC L103+ na frota A320/A321. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

About Dave Orsten and OEB Breakfast We believe that breakfast should be bolstered by artistry and passion. Our chef-driven concept is led with soul, where the emphasis lies on the people that produce, create, serve and consume our fresh, iconic cuisine. On your plate? Familiar classics balanced with un-replicatable fare you simply won't find anywhere else. With the philosophy of “learn, teach and inspire,” our welcoming spaces each tell their own unique stories. Together, we provide an exceptional, ever-evolving experience – leaving you soul-full. OEB was established in 2009; in Calgary – a Canadian city with big potential and small-town values. We pride ourselves on a vision that supports our people – from farming partners, to chefs, managers, employees, and finally, our incredible guests. We aim to invest in, educate and broaden horizons with every connection we make. The people at OEB possess a deep love of food, giving staff the confidence to excite and welcome guests. The OEB menu is purposeful, filled with items that simply can't be made at home, balanced by lighter fare and vegan options. There is heart and integrity behind the quick, well-executed service at OEB, and employees take the initiative to get to know each other and guests personally. Understanding that breakfast is the best place for honest, good connection. With distinct locations and plans to grow, OEB pushes the culinary boundaries of breakfast food to bring you the best in quality and craftsmanship – and we're sticking to it.

Souvent comparé à « l'Eurovision » de l'innovation, ce Prix est l'unique compétition en la matière en Europe, organisé par l'Office européen des brevets (OEB) depuis 2006. Cette année, l'excellence de la recherche scientifique française est mise à l'honneur, puisque pas moins de 3 finalistes sont Français. Parmi eux, ma directrice de recherche au CNRS, Claude Grison. Elle nous explique sa méthode de décontamination des sols pollués par des plantes mangeuses de métaux.

The energy sector, specifically electricity, is evolving at a rapid pace. But some folks may not realize that 94 per cent of Ontario's electricity is generated without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. That's pretty remarkable. So, what can customers expect from their local hydro utility today and in the future? How are they influenced by the government and its regulators? Teresa Sarkesian, the President and CEO of the Electricity Distributors Association, is here with us today to fill us in. Related Content & Links:  Teresa Sarkesian's Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresa-sarkesian-53898613 EDA website: https://www.eda-on.ca/  --- Transcript: Dan Seguin  00:33 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast. And in today's episode, we'll explore the need for our sector to have a collective voice. I'm Dan Seguin.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:03 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz. Dan, I don't know if you knew this, but before starting at Hydro Ottawa, I never really gave electricity much thought it was just kind of something that was always there. I didn't really know before starting here, just how much a local utility company did, how they are really on the frontlines every day keeping our complex electricity grid working and the lights on for all of us.   Dan Seguin  01:26 Or probably what a regulated industry is in Ontario, or that utilities don't even make the profit from selling energy.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:36 Definitely. And with Hydro Ottawa being a private company, it seems a little counterintuitive.   Dan Seguin  01:42 Yeah. Local hydro utilities, also known as local distribution companies distribute power from high voltage transmission lines: those big metal towers you see, to lower voltage hydro poles, so that it can be safe enough for more than 5 million residential, business, industrial and institutional customers across our province.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:07 Yep. And that includes the installation and maintenance of power lines, pools, underground cables, metering, implementing electrical vehicle infrastructure, and in some cases, even generating electricity themselves through renewable energy sources.   Dan Seguin  02:23 The energy sector specifically electricity is evolving at a rapid pace. But some folks may not realize that 94% of Ontario's electricity is generated without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. That's pretty remarkable. So here's today's big question: What can customers expect from their local hydro utility today? And in the future? How are they influenced by the government and its regulators?   Rebecca Schwartz  02:55 Our guest today is Teresa Sarkesian, and the President and CEO of Electricity Distributors Association. Teresa, welcome to the show. Perhaps you could start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and what the electricity Distributors Association does.   Teresa Sarkesian  03:15 Well, thank you so much, Rebecca, and Dan, and I'm delighted to be here today. So a little bit about myself. I joined the EDA 12 years ago, after successive positions working in the public policy and advocacy space in the provincial government with a lobby firm and another industry association in the manufacturing sector. I've been president and CEO for over five years now, which I can't believe it really has flown by quickly. As for the association, the Electricity Distributors Association is the voice of Ontario's electricity distribution sector to decision makers at Queen's Park. We are the trusted and vital source for advocacy insight information for Ontario's LDCs. The municipally owned privately owned companies that safely and reliably deliver electricity to over 5 million Ontario homes, businesses and public institutions. Our mission is to provide our local distribution companies with a valued industry knowledge, networking opportunities and collective action vital to the business success of each member. And our vision is to shape the future for LDCs to be the premier service providers to Ontarians in the evolving energy system.   Dan Seguin  04:20 As the voice for more than 60 local distribution companies. Maybe you can talk about the power of local hydro campaign, its purpose, and what you're trying to convey to residents of Ontario,   Teresa Sarkesian  04:34 Of course, so in 2018, the EDA launched its innovative and award winning power of local hydro campaign, which is a public relations program designed to position and promote the local hydro utilities to government and the public. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness and visibility of the sector and the value they provide to customers and communities. That value includes providing safe and reliable electricity service support to customers on innovative programs and solutions and providing economic support through dividends. So communities can invest in roads, hospitals, and recreation centers. One of the most important aspects of the campaign is that customers count on and trust the local utility to keep the lights on and help them manage their energy use. We have the trust because we work with our customers one on one in the communities where they live, work and play LDCs have a customer first mindset, which is communicated through the campaign with the tagline being on the frontlines of power,   Dan Seguin  05:34 Being in public affairs. I'm looking forward to your response for the next question. Does the campaign have more significance in any election year like 2022? And if so, why?   Teresa Sarkesian  05:47 Yes, Dan, I think the power of local hydro campaign has more significance during an election year. As distributors, we continue to have our fingers on the pulse of what Ontarians want from their electricity system. And we want to help customers better understand the evolving electricity system now that electricity is being seen as the answer to many climate change and netzero challenges. Customers will turn to their local utility to ask questions and seek advice on a wide range of electricity matters. And similarly, candidates and politicians will monitor what EDA has to say around electricity issues, as they understand that LDCs are on the frontlines with customers and know what is important to them.   Rebecca Schwartz  06:29 So, Teresa, your organization has communicated that Ontario's power system is changing and that local utilities are on the front lines. What exactly do you mean by that?   Teresa Sarkesian  06:39 customer demands and expectations are changing both in terms of interest in using new technologies, as well as service oriented expectations. Many households and businesses are embracing new ways to manage their power use while exploring electric vehicles, solar panel installation, battery storage switching from gas to electric heating, through ground source heat pumps, and other cost saving technologies that help reduce energy waste. Customers are looking for information and advice to connect to the distribution grid and possibly sell their surplus generation or storage back to the grid. The relationship with the customer is now developing into a two way street much more dynamic and integrated than in the past, when the flow of energy was one way only, and LDCs are well positioned to facilitate electrification of the economy, such as supporting the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and to capitalize on the opportunities related to energy storage from electric vehicles connecting to the grid LDCs are ready and able to assist, operate and own charging infrastructure services to plug in the growing demand for private and public electrify transportation. We want to work with government and third parties to help customers explore these options safely and cost effectively while ensuring that we deliver on our responsibility to maintain the reliability of the distribution grid.   Dan Seguin  08:00 Okay, Teresa, I understand that the Electricity Distributors Association relies on input and guidance from dedicated subject matter experts who serve on the diverse councils and committees. Could you impact or provide examples of how these groups guide the development of your policies and how that impacts utilities and electricity customers?   Teresa Sarkesian  08:24 Thanks for that question, Dan. We have over if you can believe this 150 volunteers from the LDC members that serve on one or more of our eight standing councils and committees. They are an extraordinarily committed group of subject matter experts from all corners of the province, representing utilities and communities of all sizes. These EDA councils and committees come together in response to government agency and regulatory consultations and some are very, very technical. The EDA is the platform that brings the industry together and we build consensus based industry positions to present to government agencies and regulators in the province. Over the past couple of years, we have prepared 50 policy submissions annually, and we are on track to do the same in 2021. Examples are far reaching from building changes to enable a customer choice model to supporting the implementation of broadband expansion to shaping ISO market renewal design. Our elected board also provides additional policy guidance on longer term issues. Our power to connect vision papers which set out a 15 year vision to explore new business models for LDCs in enabling distributed energy resources, were some recent strategic thought leadership from our board. And we are exploring more policy work in the area of net zero impacts on the distribution sector. So stay tuned for further insights on that issue. Our volunteers are highly engaged, and I would like to thank them for their time and expertise to the industry.   Rebecca Schwartz  09:55 Can you provide us with examples where collectively with utilities you proposed and advanced policy solutions at Queen's Park, which ones are you most proud of?   Teresa Sarkesian  10:05 Well, we have so many examples, Rebecca. So it was hard for me to choose. But I'm going to pick a couple from the last couple of years because I think during the pandemic, I'm particularly proud of our advocacy when things are so chaotic, down with decision makers at Queen's Park. So one way we demonstrated our customer first mandate was related to the COVID Energy Assistance Program. At the beginning of COVID. Last year, the EDA raised concerns with government that customers were struggling with electricity costs. Because of the lockdown associated with the pandemic. The EDA in its members developed and tabled ideas to provide financial support to residential and small business customers, and to provide partial relief from the global adjustment for larger customers. From there, we work closely with the Ministry of Energy to develop and implement the guidelines for the COVID-19 energy assistance program called CEAP and later the CEAP Small Business Initiative, with government providing 17 million in funding through the first phase of the pandemic. After a subsequent advocacy push from EDA and 2021. An additional 23 million was approved for the CEAP programs. CEAP has assisted more than 62,000 Ontario households and more than 13,000 small businesses. And the CEAP program is a great example of how utilities put customers first. And we're particularly proud of that because it was such a trying time, and it feels good to know that customers were supported by the utilities. The second example is our long standing advocacy efforts on the Ontario Energy boards modernization. We were very pleased this past year to see many of the EDA's modernization recommendations incorporated into the Minister of Energy's mandate letter to the OB chair. This issue has been and continues to be a multi year priority for our sector, we are confident that there will be constructive change ahead to reduce regulatory burden for LDCs. So utilities can focus more on meeting customer needs as the energy sector transforms.   Dan Seguin  12:01 Okay. Now, in your vision paper the power to connect advancing customer driven electricity solutions for Ontario, what are you proposing as a new way forward for Ontario's electricity system?   Teresa Sarkesian  12:16 As you know the electricity sector is transforming rapidly, we are moving towards a two way electricity flow.  With more customers generating and storing energy behind the meter, LDCs have a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of grid transformation by deploying these enabling technologies and developing a service platform that provides new innovative offerings to customers and DER providers. We recognize consumers as drivers of change and local distribution utilities are really at the center of that change with them. We can leverage new technologies to deliver high quality electricity services, and help customers connecting to the grid. We envision local utilities owning operating and integrating small scale clean energy and storage systems, also known as distributed energy resources right into the local grid to better meet consumer needs while augmenting the bulk power grid. We think LDCs should have a greater role as we move forward in areas such as digitalization of utilities in the grid planning locally, regionally and for the bulk system, and to provide alternatives where possible, that are lower cost than traditional capital investments.   Rebecca Schwartz  13:27 Okay, great. So now how can utilities best serve the interests of its customers in today's evolving industry?   Teresa Sarkesian  13:34 Well, I think Rebecca, we can best serve the interests of our customers by doing what LDCs do best. That's by continuing to build connections and trust with Ontarians through our customer centric approach to service by staying close and by providing knowledge and guidance to our customers on what matters to them most. Whether that's managing bills, conservation programs, ensuring reliability, supporting EV charging connections, whatever it may be. LDCs are trusted by customers and expected to have the answers and solutions to help them engage in a customized way with the evolving energy grid.   Rebecca Schwartz  14:08 Alright, so our utilities aligned with Ontario's long term energy plan as it relates to cost effective electricity and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets?   Teresa Sarkesian  14:18 Well, that's a great question because Ontario has a relatively clean grid compared to many other jurisdictions. While there is still room to improve, we need to focus efforts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, where we will achieve the greatest reduction. therefore reducing emissions in the transportation sector and in the building sector are expected to play a bigger role in meeting broader climate change targets given that emissions from those two sectors comprise approximately 60% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario. And utilities are very keen to support the fuel switching from gas to electric vehicles as a critical part of reducing greenhouse gases in Ontario. It poses an interesting challenge that as we decarbonize our economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, electricity use is expected to actually grow, we need to ensure that low or no emitting resources are pursued, such as renewables, energy storage and energy efficiency, along with other emerging technologies, such as hydrogen and small modular reactors. Presently, Ontario does not have a comprehensive public policy framework on these matters. We are looking forward to new direction coming out of the province on a multitude of initiatives including a new long term energy plan, and electrification strategy potentially from the Ministry of Transportation, and a new environmental plan from the Ministry of the Environment. I do want to speak to the electricity system because we would like to see a renewed emphasis on conservation and energy efficiency, with LDCs being at the forefront of these initiatives. For every kilowatt hour saved, one less kilowatt hour needs to be generated. Ontario has an unusual arrangement where conservation is centrally run, and not led by the local distribution companies, which is the more common practice in other jurisdictions across North America. LDCs are keen to provide conservation programs as part of a broader, more comprehensive package of solutions to help customers manage energy use and costs. LDCs were very successful in delivering conservation in Ontario the past few years LDCs deliver conservation at a cost of 1.5 cents a kilowatt hour, which was unparalleled in North America. It would be great to bring back that cost efficient and effective approach to the province and put LDCs back in the driver's seat on designing and delivering conservation for customers.   Dan Seguin  16:48 Same line of questioning here Teresa, can you share with our listeners the views of your association on the long term strategy for EVs and electrification in Ontario?   Teresa Sarkesian  17:02 So LDCs are at the forefront and have the expertise and relationships that will be crucial to expanding electrification. LDCs need to be central to supporting an electrification strategy in Ontario given the challenges utilities will face with increased load and capacity issues. And there is an opportunity to also harness the storage capacity of electric vehicle batteries to assist with grid reliability, particularly in emergency situations. But for LDCs to fully seize this opportunity ahead and effectively manage the challenges associated with large scale electrification, regulatory frameworks need to be better aligned with these fast emerging trends. Incorporating electrify transportation infrastructure should be viewed with the same regulatory lens as investing in poles, wires and transformers. There is a broader societal benefit. And while many LDCs are eager to build EV infrastructure, they face barriers today and getting in included in their rate base. That in turn is a crucial factor in enabling them to justify it amortize a significant upfront investment required to ensure system reliability with growing EV charging. And the same challenge applies to investments needed to support transit and fleet electrification as well. The current rate classes are not well suited to fast charging requirements and this is a disincentive to strategic infrastructure investment in the context of transit and fleet charging in particular, overnight or other rate classes designed to accommodate and equitably price fleet EV charging has already been implemented elsewhere and are needed in Ontario.   Dan Seguin  18:38 Thanks. Now, what is your organization's role in the electrification of transportation?   Teresa Sarkesian  18:45 So it's an exciting time for the sector to be part of this and electrification will play a significant part in Ontario's netzero future and LDCs need to play a key role in enabling the full potential of EVs in Ontario. So what is the EDA doing? so the EDA continues to participate in multi stakeholder discussions with a range of parties and government officials. Currently, we are participating on the transportation electrification Council, which is a working groups set up by the Ministry of Transportation. And that's going to go on for the next few more months, but recurring themes today include the need for rate basing of charging infrastructure to help stimulate expansion of public charging networks and for the longer term benefit of ratepayers and also discussion of challenges relating to household EV charging, such as the potential need for major electrical upgrades. But we have ongoing advocacy related to electrification, not only with the Ministry of Transportation, but across government and with the agencies and the regulator.   Rebecca Schwartz  19:45 Teresa, in one of your policy papers, Roadmap to a brighter Ontario, you identified current barriers to the evolution of local distribution companies for the future. Can you expand on what those are and perhaps what are some solutions?   Teresa Sarkesian  19:59 Absolutely. At least so currently we are as a sector lacking a comprehensive regulatory framework on distributed energy resources. There are some consultation and review processes in play at both the Ontario Energy Board and at the Independent Electricity System Operator, but they are both at the fairly early development stage, there needs to be the ability to have remuneration and more certainty and clarity, going forward to establish the role of LDCs in supporting and optimizing the electricity grid. So I want to talk about a few barriers that we have identified. So one of the challenges we have is that we must improve the distribution system plans through investments in grid visibility, we need to ensure that LDCs are permitted to make investments in grid visibility to benefit fully from the value of DERs. And by improving visibility, it will ensure that the distribution system plans are developed with greater certainty and prudence. Greater visibility also increases the ability of LDCs to coordinate with the ISO to further optimize broader electricity system benefits. Another area of concern we have is we need to remove restrictions on LDC ownership of DER resources. Currently, LDCs are restricted to owning DERs of 10 megawatts or less, there should be more flexibility in owning the large DERs and the LDC sector also needs more clarity on behind the meter ownership of the DERs. There is some light guidance by the OEB right now that will allow the ownership of behind the meter non wires alternatives, as they call them, if it can be demonstrated to be more cost effective than traditional capital investments, but we still need more certainty to ensure that is the case going forward. Another area of concern for our sector is we need to allow LDCs to control and operate DER assets for two primary purposes. And these are often DER assets that are owned by customers behind the meter. But we need to have ability to control and operate these for two main reasons. One is to allow for coordination and aggregation of DERs to respond to ISO led procurements pertaining to province wide system reliability. And also to coordinate and aggregate DERs to address local reliability within the distribution network. So these are just a few of I think we have about 15 solutions, but I thought I would just target three for the audience today.   Dan Seguin  22:27 This next one is very interesting - for me. How will distributed energy resources change the relationship between utilities and customers.   Teresa Sarkesian  22:38 While many utilities are interested in optimizing DERs that reside behind the meter and may be underutilized by customer owners and operators. Currently, there is over 4000 megawatts of DERs behind the meters of utilities across Ontario. Better digitalization of utility will provide visibility of where all those resources sit on the distribution grid. With that knowledge and the ability of LDCs to be permitted to offer price signals, owners and operators of these DERs could choose to sell back some of the generation or storage to assist the utility in supporting grid reliability. And in order to dispatch the DERs utilities will need to invest in advanced control systems to achieve this level of grid sophistication. This integration of customer assets on the distribution grid will potentially create more efficiencies in the system by delaying or avoiding other generation or transmission investments. It will be a much more dynamic relationship with customers than in the past.   Rebecca Schwartz  23:37 Wow, I can't believe that 2022 is already upon us. So what are the top two issues that could impact utilities, their shareholders and the more than 5 million customers across the province?   Teresa Sarkesian  23:51 Well, that's a great question, Rebecca. So one of the issues that we see that could be important for our sector and customers will be the post pandemic economic recovery and the upcoming provincial election in Ontario. So with regard to the post pandemic economic recovery, there has been a lot of discussion about the opportunities related to electrification. So depending on how fast government would like to move, or to incent electrification in Ontario, this could be really quite challenging for LDCs to be at the ready, because as I mentioned before, we need to make sure that we have the proper capital investments, remuneration and visibility tools to make sure that we can effectively electrify Ontario's economy. And with regard to the Ontario election, depending on the election results, there is always a possibility that there may be a change in focus for the energy sector. So if there might be a shift in government, perhaps they might want to go harder or faster on net zero or electrification targets. So we'll have to wait and see what happens. I guess the election is only about seven months away now.   Dan Seguin  24:58 Okay, Teresa Now for the fun part. How about we close off with some rapid fire questions? Okay, first one, what is your favorite word?   Teresa Sarkesian  25:11 Compassion   Dan Seguin  25:13 What is the one thing you can't live without   Teresa Sarkesian  25:17 my sense of humor   Dan Seguin  25:18 What is something that challenges you?   Teresa Sarkesian  25:21 Working in the ever changing electricity sector is both challenging and rewarding.   Dan Seguin  25:27 Now, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?   Teresa Sarkesian  25:32 Not needing to sleep.   Dan Seguin  25:35 Okay, if you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell her?   Teresa Sarkesian  25:43 Well, that would be going back a very long time ago at this stage, Dan. But what I would say to her is be brave and take a year to travel, because you won't have the time to do it again for a very, very long time for a whole year, perhaps not until retirement.   Dan Seguin  25:58 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector?   Teresa Sarkesian  26:05 I think it's the energy transformation journey we are all on right now. We are part of a global transformation on electrifying society. It's not just happening in Ontario. It is happening all across the world. It is so exciting to be part of global change. And I can't say I've really ever had that before in my career.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:24 Alright, Theresa, we reached the end of another episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. We hope you had fun.   Teresa Sarkesian  26:32 I did. Thank you so much. It was great to chat with you today.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:36 I sure hope you enjoyed this episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast. If so please head over to our iTunes SUBSCRIBE And leave us a review.   Dan Seguin  26:44 Now For show notes and bonus content visit thinkenergypodcast.ca. Also, be sure to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Thank you for listening

Καταναλωτές και επιχειρήσεις σε όλο τον κόσμο βρίσκονται αντιμέτωποι με σημαντικές αυξήσεις που ανεβάζουν το κόστος ζωής. Η ακρίβεια γίνεται η καθημερινότητά μας δημιουργώντας ένα ασφυκτικό περιβάλλον.Καλεσμένος ο Γενικός Διευθυντής της Ομοσπονδίας Εργοδοτών και Βιομηχάνων, κ. Μιχάλης Αντωνίου 

We all want to become more aware of where we are and what we're doing, without becoming overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around us. Mindfulness is a form of prayer that can help us be more in the moment. Hang with us today as we chat about #mindfulness "All joy be yours at all times in your union with the Lord. Again I repeat – All joy be yours. Let your forbearing spirit be plain to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything; but under all circumstances, by prayer and entreaty joined with thanksgiving, make your needs known to God. Then the peace of God, which is beyond all human understanding, will stand guard over your hearts and thoughts, through your union with Christ Jesus. In conclusion, friends, whenever you find things that are true or honorable, righteous or pure, lovable or praiseworthy, or if virtue and honor have any meaning, let them fill your thoughts." Philipians 4:4-8 OEB #pma #prayer #hopedealer #meditation #mindfulness #mindfulnessmoment #mindfulnessmatters HOPE IS HERE - HELP IS HERE National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 For hearing and speech impaired with TTY equipment 1-800-799-4889 Español 1-888-628-9454 Crisis Text Line Text TWLOHA to 741741 ​ Veterans Crisis Line 1-800-273-8255 press 1 ​ National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453 National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 Abuse Network (RAINN) 1-800-656-4673 The Trevor Project 1-866-488-7386 Trans Lifeline 1-877-565-8860 Addiction Recovery (The Recovery Village) 1-888-509-2251 See Less --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wearehopecommunity/message

Other than those who've been elected President, I'm not sure anyone in his generation has had a more remarkable political career than Haley Barbour. Running Mississippi for Nixon while he was still in college...ED of the MS GOP at a critical building phase in the 70s...battling a Senate Giant in his unsuccessful first race in '82...running the Reagan White House's political operation...chairing the RNC during the '94 GOP wave...2-term Governor...and starting what has become one of the most successful lobbying government affairs firms in the country. Great conversation hearing about Haley Barbour's rise from small town Mississippi to the highest corridors of political power. IN THIS EPISODEHow Haley Barbour got into politics “totally by fluke”…Running Mississippi for Nixon in '68…What made a young Haley Barbour gravitate to the Republican Party…The rise of Thad Cochran and Trent Lott…Haley Barbour's time in the early 70s as executive director of the Mississippi Republican Party…The story of Haley Barbour's lone political loss in the 1982 Senate race against longtime Dem incumbent John Stennis…Haley Barbour's rules for candidates and campaign managers…Haley Barbour's time running the political operation in the Reagan White House…Haley Barbour tells his favorite Jim Baker story…The connection between Haley Barbour and serial killer John Wayne Gacy…Why was Barbara Bush so angry at Haley Barbour in the '88 campaign?Why Haley Barbour turned down working out of the White House?The one time Ronald Reagan overruled Haley Barbour?The early days of the rise of Newt Gingrich…Haley Barbour beats two future US Senators to take over the Republican National Committee in 1993…Haley Barbour talks the GOP wave of 1994…Haley Barbour talks his 2003 Governor's campaign ousting a Democratic incumbent…How he overcame the “lobbyist” label in the Governor's race…Getting close to jumping in the 2012 presidential race…How Haley Barbour started one of DC's premier lobbying firms…Haley Barbour rules for being an effective lobbyist…AND…Spencer Abraham, John Ashcroft, Lee Atwater, James Baker, Lloyd Bentsen, Kirk Blalock, Remy Brim, Barbara Bush, Bob Calloway, Gil Carmichael, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton Mitch Daniels, Democrats for Eisenhower, Walt Disney, Bob Dole, James Eastland, Frank Fahrenkopf, Don Fierce, Gerald Ford, Kirk Fordice, Jim Free, Lanny Griffith, Mike Huckabee, Paul Johnson, Paul Laxalt, Ron Lewis, Zell Miller, Ronnie Musgrove, Lyn Nofziger, the OEB, Mike Parker, Heather Podesta, Tony Podesta, Scott Reed, Ed Rogers, Ed Rollins, Mitt Romney, George Shultz, Sam Skinner, Stu Spencer, John Sununu, Jim Thompson, George Wallace, Wendell Willkie, and MORE!

This week we are talking about FEAR. That thing that keeps us from moving forward. It's gonna be good. Scripture used: 1 Timothy 1:7 OEB & Mirror 1 John 4:10-19 OEB HOPE IS HERE - HELP IS HERE No matter what you're facing, you deserve to be connected to help. We want you to know that people have been where you are now. Things can get better. Healing is possible. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 For hearing and speech impaired with TTY equipment 1-800-799-4889 Español 1-888-628-9454 Crisis Text Line Text TWLOHA to 741741 ​ Veterans Crisis Line 1-800-273-8255 press 1 ​ National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453 National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 Abuse Network (RAINN) 1-800-656-4673 The Trevor Project 1-866-488-7386 Trans Lifeline 1-877-565-8860 For Remote Counseling links check out our website: https://www.wearehopecommunity.com/find-help.html --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wearehopecommunity/message

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #73 ATR. Neste episódio conversamos com Augusto Azambuja (chefe de equipamento ATR) e Thiago Biesdorf (coordenador de Flight Standards ATR) sobre os procedimentos preventivos relacionados a perda temporária de todos os displays do cockpit (DU e IESI). Recentemente a EASA emitiu uma AD (Airworthness Directive) para a frota ATR motivada pela ocorrência de dois casos de perda dos displays em voo. Para atualizar nossos aviadores sobre essas mudanças, falamos sobre os procedimentos operacionais aplicados para mitigar os riscos de se ter essa condição em voo, a emissão do OEB 56 e as alterações nos manuais em caráter preventivo visando cumprir todas as exigências da ATR e da EASA que entram em vigor a partir do dia 12/05/2021.

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #62 A330. Nesse episódio conversamos com Arthur Lechmann (Coordenador de Flight Standards da frota A330) e Danilo Araújo sobre alguns pontos relacionados ao Fuel Uplift, Fuel Overread, APU Fire Test e a certificação na EO EASA do CAT IIIB, além do OEB 53 e as ações de mitigação para uma condição de Unreliable Airspeed. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

Olá, seja muito bem-vindo ao StandardsCast EP #59 EJET. Neste episódio conversamos com Anselmo Cortellazzi (coordenador de Flight Standards EJET) sobre a mais nova atualização do QRH, as modificações e adições de QRC/Memory Items e a implementação do OEB na frota Embraer, como utilizá-lo na prática e os ganhos operacionais com essa nova ferramenta. Em caso de dúvidas, críticas ou sugestões, envie um e-mail para standardscast@voeazul.com.br. Este Podcast foi produzido pela Diretoria de Operações da Azul Linhas Aéreas. Em caso de divergência entre qualquer assunto técnico abordado e os documentos oficiais, os documentos prevalecerão. Todos os direitos reservados.

Hey Hope Dealers! This week we are talking about that Horizontal Life again. Take time today to see who you really are. Scripture Used: Gospel of Mary 2:2 OEB (Open English Bible) John 1:3 OEB & Mirror Galatians 5:23,26 Mirror Matthew 4:17 NLT Luke 17:21 OEB Prayers read from: A Rhythm of Prayer by Sarah Bessey Celtic Prayers from Iona J. Phillip Newell Article on St. Perpetua and Felicia: https://www.loyolapress.com/.../saint-perpetua-and-saint.../ Find Help: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 For hearing and speech impaired with TTY equipment 1-800-799-4889 Español 1-888-628-9454 Crisis Text Line Text TWLOHA to 741741 Veterans Crisis Line 1-800-273-8255 press 1 National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453 National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 Abuse Network (RAINN) 1-800-656-4673 The Trevor Project 1-866-488-7386 Trans Lifeline 1-877-565-8860 You can also check out our website for these numbers and resources for remote counseling. www.wearehopecommunity.com #HopeisHere #HopeRebellion #HopeDealer #LoveWins #LoveAloneIsCredible --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wearehopecommunity/message

This week on the Proudly Made in Canada podcast Connor chats with Teale, Marketing Director with OEB Breakfast. Both Teale & Connor discuss OEB's famous eggs, how COVID has forced OEB to pivot and the inspiration behind OEB & Local Laundry's custom T-shirt design. Pick up your limited edition OEB T-shirt for the holiday season here: https://eatoeb.com/delivery/ Make sure to tune into new weekly episodes and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play & Spotify. If you're looking for a little extra attention, screenshot this episode and tag @locallaundry on Instagram to be shared on the story. Keep your laundry local, fam!

2020 has been a challenge and a half – for individuals, families, businesses, and more. In this episode, we look at the impact of COVID-19 on Hydro Ottawa’s operations, employees and customers.  Bryce Conrad, President and CEO of Hydro Ottawa, shares the lessons that he learned while leading in these uncertain times as well as the importance of fostering resilience and flexibility in all areas of a business. He also sheds light on most pressing concerns facing utility companies upon entering the first winter of this pandemic. Related Content & Links: Website: https://hydroottawa.com/ Twitter: @hydroottawa --- Transcript: Dan Seguin  00:42 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast. While the energy sector has weathered floods, ice storms and tornadoes. The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis unlike anything a utility company has experienced before. It's safe to say that nearly every industry has had their business models, service offerings, and bottom line impacted by COVID-19. While no business or industry is immune, there's no denying that safe and reliable power for hospitals, businesses and homes is just as if not more important than ever. That in turn has shone a light on how essential local utility companies really are. While a lot of us are working remotely, the reality is that there are some jobs that can't be done from home. As an essential service. Utility field workers continue to work out in communities on critical projects to ensure grid stability, and respond to power outages to make sure the power is there when you need it. So how has the pandemic tested utility emergency response and business continuity plans and what new energy usage patterns are emerging? With energy demand, decreasing for industrial and commercial customers, and increasing for residential customers, overall, there has been a reduction of total electricity demand by approximately 10 to 30%. Across the industry. There's no denying that this shift is having an impact on our energy habits and our collective environmental footprint. So here's today's big question. What are the most pressing concerns facing utility companies as we enter our first winter of this pandemic. To shed some light on some of their offer one and one for all collaborative approach, I've invited Bryce Conrad, who has been serving as president and chief executive officer of Hydro Ottawa since 2011.  Bryce: first, what is something you've learned about yourself during COVID? And how is the team doing overall at Hydro Ottawa as we enter the first winter of the pandemic?   Bryce Conrad  03:35 That's great question. So what have I learned about myself? I guess the surprising part was just how much of a social butterfly I seem to be, you know, this pandemic, where you're sort of forced into your house, and you're forced into these small bubbles. You know, intuitively at the start, I thought, this is kind of great, no one to bug me, I can do my thing. But after about two weeks, I was going a little stir crazy. So you really, you really miss the social interaction you get, you know, whether it be in the office or, you know, with your colleagues across the country. So that part was a bit surprising. In terms of the team. Look, you know, I don't think people understand how good our team actually is. You know, we started tracking this pandemic, back in January, I remember having the initial conversation with Bruce and Lynn and, you know, they're saying this thing is, you know, we're hearing about this and we, you know, maybe we should send it back to in our business continuity plan, and I thought, Well, okay, I mean, at that point in time, it was still something off in a far off remote place and pretty far away from Ottawa. So we activated the pandemic plan, our business continuity plan, specifically the pandemic plan. Kind of mid-January. Whereas with kind of a kind of a watch and see kind of approach, and you know, followed it and tracked it and you know, as the situation worsened, then you saw it starting to come across, you know, we started to make some decisions with respect to travel and started to curtail expenditures and limiting this and that. And then when it became obvious in February, I remember having a conversation with the executive team saying, you know, we need to get ready to shut this place down. You know, the good news is we had the plan, the plan was good. And we executed on the plan so that when we made the final decision to sort of send people home, to work from home. You know, there was no, there was no panic by any stretch of the imagination, it was, it was pretty matter of fact, and, quite frankly, the team was set up and ready to go. So we can effectively throw the switch the next day, which is what we did so. So the short answer. The question is, is the team's done exceptionally well, given the circumstances. I think it's been a tough time for people, a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, a lot of uncertainty. But generally speaking, I think they've responded very well.   Dan Seguin  06:16 Hydro Ottawa has weathered ice storms, tornadoes, floods, these past years alone. What is something you've learned about the resiliency of utility companies? And how has the pandemic tested your emergency response and business continuity plan?   06:37 You know, what you what you've learned about utility companies is just that. It's just how resilient they actually are. Our ability to sort of keep on going. I feel like the US Postal Service's right, through snow and sleet and rain, you know, they keep doing their job. So yeah, that's it. I mean, the question is just how resilient the company has been how resilient company utility companies are. I mean, I have the privilege of sitting on these kind of, at the time, they were weekly calls across the country with all the CEOs of utilities through the Canadian Electricity Association. And, you know, it was comforting on the one hand to know that we were all dealing with this stuff together. Even more comforting to realize that we're probably further ahead of the game than most of our most of our peers. When we did our strategic direction back in, you know, four or five years ago now, one of the key elements was that we would, we should expect disruption in the business and disruption in the industry. And I won't pretend to be clairvoyant to say that I saw a pandemic coming at the time, but I certainly expected disruption. You know, the idea that we didn't want to be the taxicab industry when Uber arrived, we didn't want to be Blockbuster Video when Netflix arrived. So we wanted to be prepared. So you know, everything we've done over the past five years is been to sort of embrace that concept of disruption, prepare for it, whatever that took, whatever that meant. And as you saw when we moved to our new facilities, you know, we got rid of the big desktop computers we had, everyone has a laptop. So when we threw the switch and told people to work at home starting the next day, you know, Our IT people weren't out at BestBuy trying to buy, you know, 400 laptop computers, everyone was ready. And it was just a question of throwing the switch. So yeah, I think we're, I think we responded well, you know, in the course of my 10 years of the company, we've had tornadoes, we've had one in 100 year floods, we have more than 1000 year floods, we've now had a pandemic, I fully expect to look out the window and see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse coming down. I mean, we're missing locusts. But that's about all we're missing at this point in time. So this has tested our plans, it has tested the strength of the company, and I think quite frankly, the company's done well through it. And, again, our plans, our plans, you put these plans in place, hoping you never have to implement them. But if need be, the plan is there and we executed to the plan and I think there's not a there's not a single thing that I would have done differently in hindsight. So I think I think the plan is stood the test of time. Good, good. Now,   Dan Seguin  09:41 Are you able to expand on how Hydro Ottawa is helping customers that are struggling? What do you think has been Hydro Ottawa's key role thus far in providing its customers with solutions for those who need that extra help?   Bryce Conrad  10:02 Yeah, you know, it's a great question, Dan. And obviously, living in Ottawa with the mix of customers that we have. And obviously a very large public sector footprint, whether it be the Government of Canada or the universities or the hospitals, I mean, we have a large public sector footprint and that public sector has been incredibly resilient during this time, you haven't seen layoffs or you haven't seen, you know, mass disruptions as a result, unlike some of my peers across the country who are dealing with, you know, 40 and 50% default rates and stuff like that. We haven't seen that in Ottawa, largely because of the mix that we have. But I do think that overshadows some of the real challenges. If you look at your local small businesses here in Ottawa, if you look the hair salons, the restaurants, the local bookstores, the local, retail establishments, those places, all have all just been hammered. And they've had to make really hard decisions. In some cases, we've seen people paying their hydro bill, so many small businesses paying their hydro bill on their credit card, because it didn't want to get cut off. I mean, just gut-wrenching stories like that, which, which, obviously, it's an obvious consequence of the downturn/the pandemic. So what, you know, what, what can we do, what have we done? I mean, the short answer is we're doing everything we can. We want to be supportive, the direction I've given is to bend over backwards to do whatever we can to help these people and these customers, and specifically small businesses. But at the end of the day, we also have to be responsible, and part of that responsibility is making sure that we're not socializing bad debts. So just because a restaurant or businesses going out of business, and not paying their bill, it's not fair to take that that their debt and put it onto the backs of people who are paying their bills. So it's achieving that balance, but specifically that we've allowed customers to enter into payment plans that are longer than we otherwise would have normally seen. We're allowing businesses up to 12 months to get their accounts back into good standing. You know, we've worked with the various provincial associations, and we've worked with the government. And I've spoken to the Minister a number of times since the pandemic took hold and we've been front and center and supporting a number of their initiatives, including, you know, extending the disconnection ban so that no one was getting cut off. You know, through to the end of July. We were actively promoting the idea of, you know, time of use pricing makes a lot of sense when businesses is businesses and businesses good. But when everybody is forced to start to work at home, you know, penalizing people, by making them pay higher rates during the day, didn't make a lot of sense. And so we're pleased to see the government move there and adopt these COVID rates. And more importantly, recently, they've come up with these COVID funds for both small businesses and residential customers. So we've been actively pushing and promoting those, getting them out to help people so that they don't have to, you know, use their credit card to pay their hydro bill. And our answer is always the same, it's been the same from day one and it is, "look, if you're struggling, we understand it," we mean, we're not we're not oblivious to the effects of the pandemic, we just need you to reach out and talk to us and see what we can do to help you and we have a number of tools that are in our toolbox that that we can bring to bear and help you out. So if anyone's listening to this and they're struggling, just please reach out by all means and we can see what we can do for you.   Dan Seguin  13:55 We all know that the world has definitely changed. From safeguarding, to stabilizing operations, liquidity people and supply chains, within Hydro Ottawa, did the pandemic accelerate momentum towards new ways of working automation or digitization?   Bryce Conrad  14:18 I think the answer is yes and no, you know. As you know, when we went, you know, as normal process in the company, it's a big company. And when we launch new digital tools, or software, we tend to sort of do soft launches, and then, you follow up with a lot of training, and then, you know, eventually we sort of take the training wheels off, and we let people use the technology. You know, we didn't have that opportunity in this case. And so, you know, we, when we went virtual, we went real virtual, so we implemented the Google suite of products and, you know, that's something that we normally would have done over a matter of three or four months and, you know, effectively in this case, we just threw the switch and said, you know, figure it out on your own, and here's some online tools to help you. So those tools were great, and they've been fantastic. And they've allowed us to work anywhere and everywhere, at any time and to work effectively. So I think that's, that's been great, you know, we did some things that we never thought we would have had to have done before, I think specifically of, you know, the Rate Application process, which is a huge undertaking, of company undertaking. And sort of, you know, you launch this thing as massive effort. And, you know, we were on the 20 yard line kind of thing and heading in and, you know, the pandemic hit, and, you know, by use of these tools and technologies, we were able to sort of get it across the goal line, and, you know, working with the Ontario Energy Board, who was incredibly responsive, I got to give him credit. You know, we did the first ever virtual rate hearings, you know, are these quasi-judicial processes were done over Zoom or using these technologies. So, you know, full credit to the team full credit to the OEB and the interveners, for, for working with us to sort of make that possible. So I mean, that's an example where I thought the tools are great. But if I'm being honest with you, it's also highlighted a pretty profound area of weakness. I see this day in and day out. I mean, these digital tools are great for transaction oriented decisions, you know, meetings become focused around a transaction or multiple transactions. But when you really want to do some sort of blue sky thinking, you want to think about strategy and sort of bring together and do the collaboration and the heart, the heart, outside the box, thinking around collaboration and trying to move things forward, at the highest level that is not easily done by these tools. It just, you know, three hour strategy session on a zoom call is akin to a day in Guantanamo Bay, it's just not something anybody ever wants. And it's just not conducive to a positive outcome. So I think that's an area where, notwithstanding how effective these tools have been, it's just nothing will replace that face to face kind of conversation that we've grown used to. And then the other thing is, is, and I'm a huge proponent of technology. On the scale of adoption, I'm going to be the early adopter, I'm going to make sure I've got the iPhone 12 before anybody else does, right. Technology doesn't change bad habits, it doesn't make up for bad decision making. And it certainly doesn't make bad managers, great leaders. And I think there's got to be some sense that these tools are or that they're tools, they're not replacing the judgment, they're not replacing the leadership. If anything, if we use them properly, they can help accentuate it. But I've seen instances where people just assume because we're doing it on zoom, that they can be different, different kinds of leaders kind of thing and it just doesn't work.   Dan Seguin  18:25 Hydro Ottawa has instilled a culture of safety among its field and operation workforce. frontline workers are juggling their professional obligations, alongside unusual family and childcare responsibilities on an extended basis without and end date on the horizon. How is your company supporting those employees and guarding against a distracted workforce to ensure safety on the job?   Bryce Conrad  19:00 I wish I had a better answer for this one, to be honest with you. I mean, the safety culture is it's part of the DNA of Hydro Ottawa. So that part I've never, you know, I think my crew, our outside crews, the technical staff, I think they're doing I think they're doing a great job. And I think they're managing. They're doing everything while respecting the public health guidelines. But the short answer is: It's a balance for us, right? You know, I tell staff all the time, you know, the ratepayers of Ottawa. They expect seven and a half hours a day at work of each and every employee and you get paid every two weeks for that work. If you have a toddler at home, or it's almost impossible to sort of find a way to do that. So, I mean, I have teenage kids at home and with my wife working remotely and them doing school online or whatever they're doing these days, I need to come back to work to the office just to get decent Wi Fi and bandwidth. I mean, I just don't think we're as productive at home as we otherwise like to think we are and or hope we are. But even now, with the prospect of vaccination in the future, I mean, we're still months away. And if you look at these numbers, if you look at the numbers attached to the second wave, this thing is going to still hit pretty hard. I mean, I saw this morning in the US that, you know, there's, there's a death every 30 seconds, unfortunately, we seem to be a whole lot more intelligent than or behaving a little bit more intelligently than they are. But look, we have safe, secure processes in place. My view is if you can go to a gym or a restaurant, and you can come to work. And I think Dr. Etches said it best in her last recent appearances before the city council that we just need to learn to live with this virus, and part of living is coming to work. So I think we've struck the right balance between safety and security and helping people. But I don't underestimate how difficult it's been for people. And you have to remember, this pandemic struck just on the tail end of the teacher strike. So a lot of families were dealing with that before this even started. So it's been a haul, I think we can all agree that 2020 sucks.   Dan Seguin  21:40 I agree, Bryce. These are unprecedented times peppered with operational challenges. This pandemic has delayed many operations and maintenance and capital projects. What are those challenges? And how are you adapting?   Bryce Conrad  22:02 Yeah, you know, there's oddly enough. My colleague, Toronto Hydro is the first to sort of point this out. And I didn't realize this is one of those things I didn't think about, but in some cases, the capital work has actually been able to accelerate. And if you think about it, in Toronto, that mean, there's dramatically less traffic on the roads are, they're able to sort of get from point A to point B, that much faster. Here in Ottawa, same concept, where our crews are able to move from one end of the city to the next relatively expeditiously. Moreover, they're able to get the necessary permits to do the work that they need to do probably a little easier and faster than they otherwise would, because there's so there's fewer cars on the road, less commuting. But sure, there are challenges, I mean, the crews need to work safely, so they have to adhere to the public safety guidelines, you know. So what does that mean? We put one person in a truck, whereas there used to be two or three. So you can appreciate that adds cost adds complexity, and that adds time to a project. But, you know, that's just the way we have to work. The other part of the challenge is, is quite frankly, and from the customer side of the equation is, you know, with everybody working from home. Well, even before people work from home, doing planned work, and taking an outage, to sort of fix a piece of equipment. There was never, there's never a good time to do that, you know, he would sort of plan for doing it between 2 and 4am in the morning. And you know, of course, there'll be complaints the next day, because you did something between 2 and 4am. So, you know, take that now and say, Okay, well, I now have with everyone now working at home, when is the right time to take a planned outage? So, you know, people are their livelihoods are depending on their ability to access their computers and Wi Fi. So it just it makes it that much more complicated, I guess. And so, our answers, we're only taking outages in those very, very few and infrequent instances where we absolutely have to, because we recognize that the adverse impact is going to have on our customers but so we're adapting I think that's probably the best the best sense of the word.   Dan Seguin  24:33 Would you say that operating models have or will change with more remote working and more flexible structure? What does the future workplace look like to you?   Bryce Conrad  24:48 Yeah, this one, man, damn this is this is a heavy question this there's a lot packed in here. So let me just state categorically. I do believe we will see way, we'll see a change in the way we work. But I think the changes in the transitional actually be more aggressive than what people are counting on, people are thinking, well, I'll just spend more time working from home. And my answer is, maybe, but I think this is going to accelerate some other tectonic plates in society that will likely have an even more profound impact on the way we work than just simply saying, we're going to work from home. I mean, look, this pandemic has shown that we can work remotely notwithstanding the fact that I would take issue with anyone, well, not anyone, but I would take issue with people that say they're more productive working from home than they're in the office, I just, I don't see the collaboration, I don't see the creativity that I would otherwise see in the office, I don't see that at home, when you're working at home or communicating by these tools, as I referenced earlier. But look, I think the tectonic plates that I'm talking about and going forward in the future, I think are big things like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and, you know, robotics and stuff like that. And I think those are probably, quite frankly, going to, we're going to come out of this pandemic, and those tectonic plates that were that are moving are going to move even faster because of the pandemic, because people will see that, okay, this has happened, I need to, I need to sort of strengthen my operations. And here's a quick way of doing it. And you just have to look at sort of robotics as an example, you know, robots don't take a day off. So they don't get they don't get affected by COVID. So you know, if you can robotize, your operations, if you can afford to do it, you're going to try to do it. And, and there's good and there's bad, and there's some really profoundly ugly aspects of that, right. And if you think about, you think about the good, right. So you think about sort of, you know, just healthcare in general, and sort of the idea that, you know, we've all been to doctors and hospitals, where you sort of stand there and they look at those charts. And you wonder, surely to God, there's more efficient way of tracking people's health and then by paper charts. So you can imagine sort of surgical interventions via robots, you can use sensors on your body telling you, you know, when you're going to have a heart attack, and you know, measuring your circadian rhythm and precluding that heart attack from happening, those are the good things in the world of electronic health and all that sort of stuff. Just it's fascinating to think about the upsides. The downsides is I mean, it's also quite obvious if you've been to a McDonald's recently, the first thing you see when you walk in, is a kiosk, a display where you can sort of order you know, order your own food and pay right there. Well, that's replaced the job. And that's replaced a 16 year old kid whose first job it was to take an order at McDonald's. So you think okay, well, those aren't great jobs anyway, right. But you look at a company like mindbridge AI, here in Canada, which is a company that effectively found a way to do machine learning around audits. You know, I've been here for 10 years and done audits, every year of all of our companies, every audit that we do largely is based on a sample, just the nature of you take a sample of those transactions, and you audit them to make sure that they're all done properly. Well, this machine, this mindbridge technology, they don't take samples, they audit each and every transaction, and they can do it like in a matter of minutes. And they're able to find errors that an auditor would never be able to find. So you think about that as what is the future hold for auditing if you're doing all this stuff via machine learning and automated AI. And then the truly terrifying aspect of it, and I tell my board this on a regular basis is when you start to think about what the impact of those technologies are, if you can weaponize them. And in cybersecurity is an obvious place like, you know, when we do our tests and penetration tests and all that good stuff to make sure our system is robust and reliable, which it is, you know, it's all done, kind of under the polite rules of society. But if you're able to sort of weaponize AI and machine learning, they're just going to it's, it just takes it to a new threat level, which, which is truly, truly terrifying. And I don't want to sound like you know, Terminator one here kind of thing, but you know, it's a scary future if you think about it that way.   Dan Seguin  30:00 Even in the midst of a pandemic, not everything can be done virtually at essential businesses. How do you create back to office plans that leverage best practices, minimize risk to your employees and maintain continuity of operations? And do all of that while focusing on what's mission critical?   Bryce Conrad  30:27 Yeah, well, I mean, the short answer is you start with the science and you follow the public health and you adhere to public health guidelines. So we're obviously an essential workforce, we do essential work in the city of Ottawa. And yeah, we we've, our plan has been constantly tailored in reflecting the best advice that we get from public health. So you know, we've had probably over 200 employees tested for covid now, and we've had one positive, and that one positive is directly related to a social interaction that happened on a weekend outside of the office. So, you know, we take a bit of solace in the fact that our protocols are working and they're keeping people safe. So, you know, that's the in itself is a short answer. But I mean, I'd prefer also these calls that we're having on a weekly basis with some of my peers across the country. You know, we're all struggling with the same concept of how to get people back to work in a responsible and safe way. You know, the blue team/orange team that we've come up with here is not it's not novel. Some of my peers OPG, they've been doing that as well, where they've brought back half their staff one week, they work from home the next week, I think they're bringing in shifts that's what we've effectively done here. And it's worked, as I said, some of our some of our more mission critical functions, if you think of the system office, you know, we've taken an even more deliberate and more protective stance around them, I mean, they have to come to work, you can't run the system from your from home. So you know, we've effectively created two system offices a backup one we always had two, but you know, we've staffing to now for the sake of ensuring that we can always if there's an outbreak in one, we can still run the system from the other. And quite frankly, we toyed with the idea of a third where, you know, if we were to have employees who were asymptomatic, but still positive for COVID. And they felt in, they could still come to work, we would create, quote, unquote, a dirty system office, where they could come to work and do their job. And as long as they're asymptomatic and weren't feeling the ill effects associated with it and still do the job, we would potentially look at creating a third one that we haven't had to go that far. But those are some of the practices that some of my peers have put in place across the country and some of the lessons that we've learned from them. But again, in some cases, we've carved our own a lot of cases, we've carved our own way forward. And I give full credit to the team, to the HR team for doing that in facilities, they done things that I never thought of, you know, they've thought of come up with plans. And, and again, you know, the fact that we've, you know, knock on wood, haven't had a COVID positive case in the office is a testament to them, and that, that work that they've done.   Dan Seguin  33:35 I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the lockdowns and social distancing measures have triggered a historic decline in emissions while increasing public appreciation for improved climate conditions. Where do you think we're headed as an industry?   Bryce Conrad  33:55 Yeah, it's truly fascinating. And I'm sure you've seen the photo of the canals in Venice before and after the pandemic, before it was looked like a kind of a brown cesspool of garbage. And afterwards, it looks like this crystal blue thing that you would only see in the, the Venetian in Las Vegas, you know, if you can see the bottom of the water kind of thing. So it's pretty amazing. So, you know, look, if I'm being honest, I think the pandemic is going to be nothing compared to the eventual impact of climate change, right? Climate change is the single existential threat that we need to deal with next, and here not well, we've seen the impacts of climate change on an annual basis. Again, I just, let's talk about the last three years. We had a one in 100 year flood, a one in 1000 year flood and we had six tornadoes, touchdown. I mean, you know, you can argue that, you know, these are just kind of normal cyclical weather patterns, but the evidence is not there. I mean, these things just don't. Stats don't lie that way. So where do I think we're headed as an industry? I think, look, I think we're going to be at the forefront of dealing with climate change as a as a threat, I think you see OPG, which obviously full credit to them, but they just came out the other day saying that they would be carbon neutral in their operations by 2040. Or maybe even sooner I have read that was 2040. But maybe an earlier. The city of Ottawa has committed to being carbon neutral by 2050. So I think, you know, as utility, we obviously play a pretty key role in supporting that agenda. And you know, if anything, this, this pandemic is, is kind of has truly heightened people's appreciation for the little things that can be done that have big impacts. So, you know, I expect when we do get back to work, whenever that looks like, I fully expect the federal government is going to adopt a kind of a more lenient approach to working from home, if nothing else, I can't imagine those office buildings in downtown Ottawa are going to be filled up the day after a vaccine is released, I think they're going to, quite frankly, will start to encourage people to work from home as a means of sort of controlling their carbon footprint. So I think you'll see public transit, continue to develop and grow. And I think we're seeing with the electrification of public transit here in Ottawa. That's a trend that's going to continue as well. So I think if nothing, if nothing good comes out of this pandemic, other than an appreciation for our collective impact on the environment. I think that that in itself is not a bad thing.   Dan Seguin  37:03 Okay, with people staying home and running home offices. Have we seen a shift in the distribution of where electricity is being used thinking of residential neighborhoods, and a leveling of peak hours? Is the curve expected to flatten as each household distributes the usage more evenly? How will this impact the grid as a whole?   Bryce Conrad  37:33 Well, the last I mean, the last part of the question is that it won't impact the grid, because the grid is built for peak. So you know, at least hopefully it won't impact the grid. But and I should also preface by saying I'm not an engineer. So you know, I just play one on TV from time to time. But look, the curve has flattened, obviously, as more and more people work from home. But I don't believe there's any real impact on the grid. Although you are seeing the load shift. I mean, you think about downtown Ottawa when those office buildings are full, you know, take a good hot day in July, when the air conditioning is running at a good pace. I mean, that those are those are those buildings are big loads, and they're full of people. You take that load away, and you distribute it back away from the downtown substations and out into the barrhavens and Kanata and Orleans and other parts. So I think you're seeing a dispersion of the load across the city. But the good news is that the grid is built to accommodate that, obviously, and we haven't seen any deleterious effects associated with that. So I think we'll be fine. The grid will be fine. I do expect, you know, at some point, we're going to have to figure out what to do with those downtown buildings, you know, you think of like a place de ville tower, which has got 29 floors? And what 12 elevators. You know, are you going to see a maximum occupancy in there, again, you're going to see another 2000 employees back there, you know, sort of lining up to go in the elevator every morning, and then what every afternoon, I just don't think that's going to happen. So I think this load transfer maybe, well, not permanent, I think it will be more. I don't think you'll see a return to normal, quote unquote, normal. When the when people go back, if they go back.   Dan Seguin  39:52 Okay, I think you've answered this next one. But some folks may not know that Hydro Ottawa generates about 128 megawatts. Renewable power? How are changing load patterns impacting / or will they impact the generation output?   Bryce Conrad  40:10 Yeah, no, the short answer is no, there's no real impact on the output. Our facilities, which we're incredibly proud of, both here in Ottawa, in Eastern Ontario, down through Kingston, and quite frankly, in upstate New York. So all the entire fleet of generating assets are working well. And they're contracted. So you know, the power is effectively sold back into the grid. Whether the power is being used in the grid is, you know, it's another story, but the, there's no real impact on our generating assets. Other than, you know, the employees that run those assets have had to take the same precautions as every other employee has.   Dan Seguin  40:59 Okay. Some of the key and unexpected outcomes of this pandemic are the various costs that are being incurred by utilities, including collection shortfalls, continuing service to customers unable to pay, and increased operational burdens from managing a distributed workforce. All the while providing uninterrupted service during the period of significant constraints. Looking at the post pandemic horizon, what are some of the business lessons you've learned?   Bryce Conrad  41:39 Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, the business lessons. I don't know that there's been a lot of business lessons as much as I've just learned some lessons from this. And the first one I've been saying from day one, which is, you know, this pandemic has been incredibly humbling. You know, as a CEO of a company, you kind of wake up every morning, knowing which way you're going and what you're trying to do. And this thing is just kind of taking you sideways. Like on any given day, you know, you're trying to respond to the public health concerns, you're trying to address your employees, you know, the issues your employees are bringing up and, and sometimes you just don't have a good answer. And that's kind of a, as a CEO, that's not a place you like to be very often because we like to think of ourselves as being all known and omnipresent, and all that other crap. So it has been a humbling experience. What I will say is, is it's taught me It taught us as a company to be flexible, and responsive. You know, we had an incredible pandemic plan that was built, I think, for the avian flu, which was, what 10 years ago, you know, eight years ago. So you have this plan, and then you have to sort of change it to reflect the new pandemic. And the good news is we had the plan to work through and we were able to adapt this plan to reflect the day to day and on the on the ground realities. We're able to execute to it so. But that flexibility was paramount, particularly earlier on as you're trying to figure this thing out. And you know, we all spent far too much time watching TV and listening to the doomsayers in the media who are predicting, you know, the end of civilization as we know it. Some of that's kind of terrifying, but at the same time, you'll learn to block some of that crap out. So that was, that was a lesson learned. Another lesson we learned was that leadership matters. Look, I've taken decisions as part of this whole pandemic, which have not won me a lot of friends. You know, I don't apologize for those decisions. I think there are the right decisions. But that's what I get paid to do. You know, I'm the CEO of the company, and they pay me to sort of make those decisions. Conversely, as I've seen, these decisions and other decisions that get made cascade through the organization, you know, you can you can see who the leaders of the organization are. And that's both rewarding and fulfilling, but also sometimes it's a bit disappointing when you see people that you expect to step up and do something and they don't, for whatever reason, and sometimes there are good reasons why they don't so I shouldn't it's not criticism as much as it's a statement or an observation. third, or fourth, where I am communication, I mean, the old adage that you can never over communicate is so very, very true -communication with staff stakeholders with your customers. As we've gone through this pandemic, we have tried our very best to sort of communicate with everybody, as often as possible. If I just take staff as an example, you know, when we made the decision to sort of bring staff back sort of end of July, on the in the blue team / orange team kind of rotational piece, you know, we write open and said, just send it if you've got questions or concerns, send them to us. And we'll answer your questions. And we post those questions. And we posted those answers. And after about 50 questions, you realize that they're asking the same question, they're just asking it in a different way. And that's not coming from a place of malice, it's actually coming from a place of anxiety, they're trying to understand why the decision has been made. And, and so you know, we just kept answering the question, and we kept you kept giving them the same answer. And I think that helped. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think there are still employees that were terrified, coming back to the office. And hopefully, they've since learned that the office is not a bad place to be, it's actually quite safe. But yeah, that level of communication and same with our customers. And, you know, the frustration for me is that is our customers who may or may not be struggling with COVID, with as a result of the pandemic to pay their bills. You know, all I really all you really want them to do is to reach out and call us and talk to us. And if they do, then we can put them into a plan or a process that allows him to sort of manage those bills. Because again, the worst thing in the world for me is to see somebody paying their credit card using the credit card as opposed to us putting them on a payment plan. So it's just that constant communication. And then the last one, which last lesson I've learned, and I think we will collectively learn is that as much as this pandemic has been about physical health and the physical well-being of people and employees and the citizens of Ottawa, it's the mental health aspect, that's going to be the lingering legacy of this thing. I just don't think we have a handle on what the mental health impacts will be. When we get back to if we get back to what the new normal looks like, you know, forcing kids to separate from their friends, forcing families apart during the holidays, those are sorts of things that are just really difficult to imagine from a mental health perspective. And I think, you know, full credit to the Royal in the team they have, but I think they're going to be busy going forward.   Dan Seguin  47:55 Yeah, it's going to leave a mark for sure. How is your utility working to tightly manage capital and operating expenses? In this new rate sensitive and revenue challenged world? And post pandemic, as the economy begins to revitalize, are you expecting a need to address a backlog of critical activities and capital investment projects?   Bryce Conrad  48:25 So let me answer the second part of the question first. So the short answer is I don't expect that there'll be much of a backlog when we get back to sort of the full spender the burn rate, I think we've credited the operations team, they've done an amazing job of, you know, they took a couple weeks to figure out how to do the business safely and efficiently when the pandemic struck. And but man, they've been burning, they've been going full steam since then. So I give them full credit. So I don't expect a backlog per se. You know, if you look, if you listen to the Government of Canada, and the most recent economic statement, there seems to be a fairly significant amount of stimulus funding on them coming forward, I think in the next couple years, so I actually expect will be probably busier than ever, because, you know, every time you resurface a road or do something to a road or a transit system, I mean, you're talking about there's an impact on us as the as utility, so we're involved. So I expect will be busier than ever. But going back to the first part, you know, the rate sensitive and revenue challenged, which I think is absolutely true. And again, I'm not you know, hindsight is 2020 and I'm not looking for anybody to sort of throw flowers our way but, you know, we kind of saw the rate sensitivity. We've been watching it for like 10 years, right people have been frustrated by the rates in Ontario. And, you know, the inability to control those rates and have to affect the hydro rates of electricity rates have been a bit of a black box, I mean, they just not something you have line of sight to or control over in any real meaningful way. So we always saw the threat of kind of this rates sensitivity and revenue challenging. And we decided early on, to diversify our revenues away from the rate, the rate regulated assets. So yes, Hydro Ottawa limited is still a very large company in a very good company, and one that generates significant revenues. But we also made decisions to sort of expand and, and double down on our generating fleet. So we've taken our generating assets, and we've grown them by over 500%, in the past six years. Now, we didn't do that simply because we want to be good corporate citizens and be the largest custodian of green energy. We just want to own green energy projects in Canada, we want we did that because there was these assets are also quite lucrative. So, you know, as we got away from, you know, if you look at our balance sheet today, our balance sheet today is probably, you know, 75% regulated and 25%, unregulated. And if I go back, you know, years ago, it was probably 95/5. So by diversifying our revenues away from the regulated assets, we were able to sort of help manage some of that rate sensitivity and still demonstrate to the citizens of Ottawa who owned the company that we are a solid investment in a well-run company. So I think that's your answer, Dan.   Dan Seguin  51:47 Okay, Bryce, are you ready to close us off with some rapid fire questions?   Bryce Conrad  51:54 Yeah.   Dan Seguin  51:55 Okay. What is your favorite word?   Bryce Conrad  51:58 Right now? Joe Biden.   Dan Seguin  52:02 Okay. What is the one thing you can't live without?   Bryce Conrad  52:08 My family   Dan Seguin  52:10 What habit or hobby? Have you picked up during the shelter in place?   Bryce Conrad  52:15 Always been a big reader, but I forced myself to read at least an hour a day. So I trying to read 100 books this year. So I'm close. If anyone's interested, I've got some suggestions for you.   Dan Seguin  52:29 If you could have one superpower, what would it be?   Bryce Conrad  52:35 Either time travel or invisibility. One or the other? Time travel, so I could sort of be a better day trader. Okay, make some more money, invisibility, for obvious reasons.   Dan Seguin  52:49 Okay. If you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell them?   Bryce Conrad  52:57 Put the beer down and study harder.   Dan Seguin  52:59 Okay. And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector?   Bryce Conrad  53:05 You know, the energy industry as a general rule, and the utility sector specifically is just a constant. It's constantly changing. And you cannot be bored running a utility in Ontario. It's just not possible. And if you are, you're just crazy. So I think as you look forward, and I talked about earlier, you know, climate change and the impacts of climate change will have I think, as with a lot of things in life in society, the solutions to that are going to come at the local level. And you know, Hydro Ottawa, we're absolutely going to be at the heart of those efforts going forward. And I think it's just a fascinating blank canvas at the moment that I can't wait to be part of.   Dan Seguin  54:01 So cool, Bryce. Listen, we've reached the end of another episode of think energy podcast. Again, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you had a lot of fun.   Bryce Conrad  54:10 Thanks, Dan. Appreciate it!   Dan Seguin  54:12 Thanks. Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of ThinkEnergy podcasts. For past episodes. Make sure you visit our website hydroottawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Anyway, this podcast is a wrap. Cheers, everyone.

O economista vai comentar sobre os impactos econômicos causados pela crise do novo coronavírus. Com Gustavo Loyola, economista, ex-presidente do Banco Central do Brasil e eleito o Economista do Ano em 2014 pela OEB, e José Márcio Camargo, economista-chefe da Genial Investimentos. #Dólar #Ibovespa #Coronavírus ---------------------------------------- COMECE A INVESTIR AGORA, ABRA SUA CONTA GRATUITA NA GENIAL! https://genial.vc/abrasuaconta-yt ----------------------------------------- BAIXE NOSSO APP! -> Google Play Store: https://genial.vc/google-play-genial -> Apple Store: https://genial.vc/apple-store-genial ----------------------------------------- FIQUE LIGADO NO NOSSO BLOG E REDES SOCIAIS! -> Blog: https://blog.genialinvestimentos.com.br/ -> Instagram: https://genial.vc/instagram-genial -> Facebook: https://genial.vc/facebook-genial -> Linkedin: https://genial.vc/linkedin-genial -> Twitter: https://genial.vc/twitter-genial

Per gentile concessione, il keynote di Audrey Watters (twitter: @AudreyWatters) alla OEB 2019 a Berlino. Voce di S. Ortolani. Originale su http://hackeducation.com/2019/11/28/ed-tech-agitprop

Per gentile concessione, il keynote di Audrey Watters (twitter: @AudreyWatters) alla OEB 2019 a Berlino. Voce di S. Ortolani. Originale su http://hackeducation.com/2019/11/28/ed-tech-agitprop

Lang, lang ist es her seit die letzte Folge veröffentlicht wurde. Wegen technischen Problemen haben wir Episode 7 verschieben müssen, um eine neue Aufnahmemöglichkeit zu finden. Nun könnt ihr sie laden! Die Switch ist ein Dauerbrenner und es ist kein Ende in Sicht. Im News-Sektor geht's um diesen und weitere Erfolge, die Nintendo bisher verbuchen konnte. In "What's loose?!" werden Pokemon, Asphalt 9 und Luigi's Mansion 3 analysiert. Wie viele Tanookis werden wohl vergeben? Nach "Pump den Song" von Oeb wird zum Abschluss über die "The Game Awards" spekuliert, die David immernoch mit dem Vorgängerformat verwechselt. Welches Switch-Spiel wird wohl das Game of the Year? Und ob Reggie auch dabei sein wird? Mal sehen... bis dahin - pumpt den Podcast! Eure Tanooki Bros. Intro: SVS X - Tanooki Bros. Intro Kakaopause: Oeb - Pump den Song Outro: Terranigma OST - Underworld (Prod. by Miyoko Kobayashi und Masanori Hikichi) Folgt uns auf Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanookibros

On this week's episode of the podcast we talk all about food. Our resident foodie Lex discusses her favourite eats around the city of Calgary and her go tos for food. As always Tor is along for the ride and chimes in when necessary. Restaurants mentioned on the podcast are in Calgary but there are definitely equivalent or comparable eateries wherever you might be listening from.Pho Huong Viet (Vietnamese), Viet Sub express (Vietnamese), Presotea (Bubble tea), The Alley (Bubble Tea), Gong Cha (bubble tea), Una/ Bread and Circus (Italian), Vin Room (Italian), Chianti (Italian), Fusion Sushi, Globefish (sushi), Kinjo (sushi), Shokunin (Japanese), Gyu-Kaku (Japanese BBQ), 1Pot (hot pot), Cinnamon (Indian), Green Chili (Indian), Moti Mahal (Indian), The Himalayan (Nepalese), Royale (great dessert and cocktails), Blanco (Mexican), Anejo (Mexican), Native Tongues (Mexican), Buttermilk (breakfast), Monki (breakfast), OEB (breakfast), Red's (breakfast), Nellie's Cosmic Cafe (breakfast), Diner Deluxe (Breakfast), Made by Marcus (Ice cream), Village Ice Cream, Bubble Waffle Cafe, Ollia Cafe (Macarons) We may have missed a few, but that is basically all the food we talked about today. As always please like and subscribe to the podcast if you like what you hear. Leave a comment or slide into our DMs on Instagram @girlsonbreakpod if there is a subject you want us to chat about.Peace, Love and Bubble tea

A rally at City Hall on Saturday drew hundreds to stand up against hate in Hamilton. A small contingent of yellow vest members were on the other side of the sidewalk. What can the city truly do for demonstrations in the fore court? How can we make it civil but not restrictive? The rules currently put in place have a lot of restraint (no chalk drawings for example). But with what we've seen over the past few weeks is there any thing they can do? Guest: Larry DiIanni. Former Mayor, Lobbyist, City of Hamilton - The Conservatives want to investigate John McCallum's comments on China, saying that they're very disturbing and should be investigated. McCallum has said to a Chinese paper that he had warned their foreign ministry that further punishments would allow the opposition to win the next election. Guest: Christo Aivalis, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in History at the University of Toronto - Cottagers may be facing a new hydro hike. Hydro One is in the process of submitting a report to the OEB on it's seasonal customers, which could see bills go up $1000 more. Guest: Terry Rees, Executive Director, Federation of Ontario Cottagers' Associations

The high content boys sit down with OEB of blo som em entertainment. We talk about xmas and shit

Jon, Jo and Kate catch up in Berlin and talk OEB, Patti Shank discusses her most recent work, and we outline the best bits of this month's magazine too. Plus, a review of the year, sort of. Tune in today!

Editor Jon Kennard gives us a quick intro to TJ's audio coverage from this year's OEB event in Berlin. If you don't have time to listen to the intro, we'll say it here too - the audio quality is a little variable, the footage is taken in cafes, bars and meeting rooms. We get about. More info on the event here -> https://oeb.global/

Deputy ed Jo Cook takes a few minutes out of her busy OEB schedule to talk to Patti Shank, instructional designer, author, learning outcomes specialist and panellist at this year's Big Debate. For more about Patti Shank have a look here. https://www.pattishank.com/

Episode 62 haben wir genutzt um Meinungen und Haltungen zu MILLA zusammen zu kehren, aber wir haben auch etwas gelesen. Schülerinnen und Schüler in Brooklyn streiken weil sie zu lange allein vor Computern sitzen, digitale Plattform-Ritter reiten durch die Gesellschaft, Kathrin Passig schreibt etwas zum "Trouble with talking", Jürgen Geuter a.k.a. tante schreibt etwas zu Blockchain und Programmierbarkeit von Ethik. Außerdem sprechen wir über die Monopoly Men mit Monokel und Zylinder, schauen auf die letzten 50 Jahre zu openness und education und freuen uns abschließend über Benjamin Doxtdator's Beitrag bei der OEB. Natürlich gibt es auch wieder einen Blödsinn der Woche.

Episode 62 haben wir genutzt um Meinungen und Haltungen zu MILLA zusammen zu kehren, aber wir haben auch etwas gelesen. Schülerinnen und Schüler in Brooklyn streiken weil sie zu lange allein vor Computern sitzen, digitale Plattform-Ritter reiten durch die Gesellschaft, Kathrin Passig schreibt etwas zum "Trouble with talking", Jürgen Geuter a.k.a. tante schreibt etwas zu Blockchain und Programmierbarkeit von Ethik. Außerdem sprechen wir über die Monopoly Men mit Monokel und Zylinder, schauen auf die letzten 50 Jahre zu openness und education und freuen uns abschließend über Benjamin Doxtdator's Beitrag bei der OEB. Natürlich gibt es auch wieder einen Blödsinn der Woche.

Jon and Kate tackle presenteeism and the non-stop expansion of Closer Still Media, then Jo joins to discuss the month's webinar and magazine. We also look ahead to this year's OEB event. News links beneath: https://thenextweb.com/gaming/2018/10/18/rockstar-controversy-crunch-culture/ https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/closerstill-media-acquires-majority-stake-in-the-elearning-guild https://www.thrivelearning.com/blog/learner-experience/engagement-learning

Jon and Jo look at the fifth sub-theme of this year's OEB event: Measurable results and data collection pay-offs, For more info about the event check here. oeb.global/

Jon and Jo look at the fourth sub-theme of this year's OEB event: Developing learning professionals’ skills and implementing complex change. For more info about the event check here. oeb.global/

Jon and Jo look forward to the annual Berlin meeting of great L&D and ed-tech minds that is OEB. For more info about the event check here. https://oeb.global/

Jon and Jo look at the second sub-theme of this year's OEB event: Dynamic learning, training and future-oriented skills. For more info about the event check here. oeb.global/

Jon and Jo look at the third sub-theme of this year's OEB event: Nascent technologies to change learning. For more info about the event check here. oeb.global/

Jon and Jo look at the first sub-theme of this year's OEB event: Instilling curiosity. For more info about the event check here. oeb.global/

It's an exciting week on The GoodPractice Podcast as Cathy Moore joins Ross G and James to explore her 'action mapping' technique. Action mapping is an outcomes-focused approach to behaviour change that we use at the start of every project. It was a real thrill to discuss it in detail (and check that we were doing it right!). If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @JamesMcLuckie and @CatMoore. To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice and @GoodPracticeAus. Cathy is speaking at the OEB conference later this year if you want to hear from her in person. Find out more at: https://oeb.global/  She blogs at blog.cathy-moore.com  The assessment concept Ross discussed, 'consequential validity', is covered here: Boud, D. (1995). 'Assessment and learning: contradictory or complementary'. In: Knight, P. ed. Assessment for Learning in Higher Education. London: Kogan Page/SEDA. pp. 35-48. Yes, Ross is back at uni, so look forward to another 10 weeks of academic references. 

Deputy editor Jo Cook talks to knowledge management expert Stephanie Barnes about her careers in KM and expressionist art, and whether the two ever overlap. More on the OEB agenda here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

Our deputy editor Jo Cook talks to industry veteran/firebrand Donald Clark about the future of education and the workplace, the reality of being a blockchain analyst in the jobs market, via Brexit, Trump and the NHS. Unmissable stuff from a formidable character in L&D. More on the OEB agenda here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

We get 5 minutes with keynote speaker Aleks Krotoski about her talk on storytelling in business and how you get from the Bible to Star Wars via Dallas and My Little Pony all in one keynote. More on the OEB agenda here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

Sam Davis and Roisin Cassidy from Save the Children tell us how gamification works at Save the Children, and the advantages of keeping your content open source. More on the OEB agenda here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

The Towards Maturity founder gives TJ the latest insights from the TM benchmark, sets the scene for the upcoming days of OEB and tells us why digital transformation is so crucial for all businesses. More on the OEB agenda here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

Jon and Jo discuss the final sub-theme of this year's event. Can't make it to Berlin? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Periscope, Audioboom and through TrainingJournal.com for exhaustive coverage of OEB 2017. More here https://oeb.global/programme#agenda

Jon and Jo tackle sub-theme no.5 of this year's OEB. Only one more left and the event is nearly upon us! More here https://oeb.global/conference#themes

Jo and Jo have a quick chat about Collaborating to Compete, the second sub-theme of this year's OEB event in Berlin this December. FFI go here oeb.global/

Jo and Jo have a quick chat about Adapting for Action, the first sub-theme of this year's OEB event in Berlin this December. FFI go here https://oeb.global/

Will Cap and Trade make our natural gas bills go up this year? The cap and trade plan comes into effect next month and the OEB says that the typical residential customer will see a monthly increase of $6.40.   Guest: Dr. Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics and CBE Fellow in Sustainable Commerce, Department of Economics and Finance with the University of Guelph.   If ice or snow flies off a car and damages another, is it considered a collision? If it is, who's responsible – the one who didn't/couldn't remove the snow and ice or the one who couldn't avoid it?   Guest: Constable Claus Wagner, Traffic Specialist with Hamilton Police Service.   Uber has been forced by the DMV to pull it's autonomous, self driving cars off the road in San Francisco because they were not properly permitted.   Guest: Sunil Johal, Policy Director at the Mowat Centre, School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto.

Our natural gas bills are going up in 2017. The cap and trade plan comes into effect next month and the OEB says that the typical residential customer will see a monthly increase of $6.40.   Guest: Dr. Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics and CBE Fellow in Sustainable Commerce, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Guelph.