Ontario's feed-in-tariff program connects 7000 micro-power projects to the grid

The Government of Ontario has been very active in pushing a revolution in electric power in the province. In 2004 as part of Ontario's Smart Metering Initiative, the Ontario Government legislated that all electric power customers in the province have smart meters by 2010.  In 2007, the Ontario Government committed to phasing out coal generation in the province by 2014.  Then early in 2009 the Green Energy and Green Economy Act was passed by the Ontario legislature.  It mandated distributed generation (DG) enablement to ensure open access to the electric power grid to all residents of Ontario, which means that the local power company is required to connect micro-power projects to the grid.  Secondly it made it financially very attractive for micro-power projects, especially photovoltaic projects, through a feed-in-tariff program.

 Since then about 7,000 micro-projects, mostly involving photovoltaic panels, have been connected to the grid across the province. 

But there are another 1,500 micro-solar projects that were conditionally approved, but are in locations where the capacity of the local power grid is constrained.  Last Friday the Ontario Energy Minister announced that these projects can be relocated to places where the grid does have the capacity to absorb them.