“The electricity system of the future will not be defined simply by how much power we can generate, but by how intelligently we plan, how reliably we operate, and how boldly we transform. Strategy is the bridge between the grid Ontario has today and the one Canadians will depend upon tomorrow.” – MJ Martin
A Strategy Built for a Changing Ontario
Ontario’s electricity system is entering one of the most consequential periods of change since electrification began. Population growth, industrial expansion, electric vehicles, data centres, distributed energy resources, energy storage, nuclear refurbishment, and new generation are changing both how electricity is produced and how it is consumed. The Independent Electricity System Operator, or IESO, has organized its 2022 to 2027 Corporate Strategy around three core strategies: drive and guide the sector’s future, ensure system reliability while supporting cost-effectiveness, and drive business transformation. The IESO completed a mid-cycle review in 2025 to ensure the strategy remained aligned with the rapidly changing electricity environment. (IESO)
These strategies can be viewed as three legs of the same stool. Ontario needs to know where it is going, keep the electricity flowing while getting there, and ensure the organization responsible for coordinating the journey has the tools and capabilities required to succeed.
Drive and Guide the Sector’s Future
The first strategy recognizes that the IESO cannot simply react to electricity demand after it appears. Electricity infrastructure frequently requires years, and sometimes decades, to plan, approve, finance, and construct. The IESO must therefore operate partly like an air traffic controller and partly like a navigator, managing today’s system while continuously looking far beyond the horizon.
The scale of the challenge is substantial. The IESO’s 2026 Annual Planning Outlook forecasts Ontario electricity demand increasing approximately 65 per cent by 2050. Data centres alone are expected to represent 8.6 per cent of provincial electricity demand by that year. Electrification, economic development, population growth, and transportation are fundamentally changing the load profile Ontario must serve. (IESO)
Driving and guiding the future consequently means forecasting demand, identifying regional and provincial infrastructure requirements, procuring future resources, integrating new technologies, engaging Indigenous communities and municipalities, and providing the information necessary for governments, utilities, investors, and consumers to make informed decisions.
Ensure System Reliability While Supporting Cost-Effectiveness
Reliability remains the foundation beneath every electricity strategy. A cleaner or more technologically sophisticated grid has limited value if electricity is unavailable when Canadians need it. The IESO describes this strategic objective as transforming electricity markets, adapting planning processes, competitively acquiring required services, and strengthening cybersecurity. (IESO)
The challenge is balancing reliability with affordability. Building excessive capacity provides insurance but imposes unnecessary costs on customers. Building too little creates reliability risk. It resembles designing a bridge: sufficient structural margin is essential, but simply doubling every component would not constitute sound engineering.
The balancing act becomes more important as Ontario adds variable generation, storage, distributed resources, and large new electrical loads. Encouraging competition, improving forecasting, expanding energy efficiency, and procuring resources incrementally can help Ontario respond as actual demand becomes clearer. The IESO estimates that expanded energy-efficiency programs could reduce electricity demand by approximately 8 per cent in 2050 and avoid $12.2 billion in system costs. (IESO)
Drive Business Transformation
The third strategy turns the lens inward. Ontario cannot operate a twenty-first-century electricity system using twentieth-century processes, technology, or organizational structures. The IESO must modernize its own digital systems, data capabilities, cybersecurity, workforce, analytical tools, and business processes.
Business transformation is therefore not administrative housekeeping. It is infrastructure. Just as sophisticated avionics allow pilots to manage increasingly complex aircraft, modern information systems allow electricity-system operators to understand millions of changing variables and make increasingly sophisticated operational and planning decisions.
Three Strategies, One Destination
The strength of the IESO framework lies in the interdependence of its three strategies. Strategic foresight identifies where Ontario must go. Reliability and cost-effectiveness ensure the electricity system continues functioning throughout the transition. Business transformation gives the IESO the institutional capability to manage that increasingly complex system.
Questions to Ponder
The important questions for Ontario are therefore broader than simply asking how much electricity the province will require.
* How much reliability margin are Ontarians prepared to pay for?
* How should nuclear, hydroelectricity, natural gas, renewables, storage, conservation, imports, and distributed energy resources divide the responsibility for supplying future demand?
* Should Ontario build infrastructure ahead of anticipated industrial growth, or wait until demand becomes more certain?
* How should Indigenous communities, municipalities, utilities, businesses, and consumers participate in those decisions?
* And, perhaps most importantly, how does Canada transform its electricity system quickly enough to enable economic growth without allowing the transition itself to compromise affordability or reliability?
Those questions ultimately explain why the IESO needs all three strategies. Ontario is not merely operating an electricity grid. It is designing the electricity system that the next generation of Canadians will inherit.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.