Pay people instead of power plants for clean electricity

The author contends that customer-driven demand-side management—such as smart thermostats, heat pumps, and optimized EV charging—can serve as a 'virtual power plant' to maintain grid stability. The text highlights a successful Ontario program that created a 90-megawatt virtual power plant and calls for federal and provincial policy shifts to prioritize energy efficiency investments over fossil fuel infrastructure.

• The Clean Electricity Regulations permit the continued use of natural gas plants to maintain grid flexibility and reliability during periods of high demand or low renewable generation.
• Households and businesses can act as flexible power plants by shifting or reducing electricity usage through actions such as charging electric vehicles during high wind periods, automating commercial building systems, and using high-efficiency heat pumps with insulation.
• A program in Ontario demonstrated the viability of customer-driven solutions by paying users $75 to use smart thermostats for pre-cooling homes, which enrolled 100,000 households in six months and created a 90-megawatt "virtual power plant."
• The federal government could promote demand-side solutions by providing match funding for utility energy efficiency investments, requiring smart systems in appliances like hot water tanks, and ensuring demand-side efficiency competes with energy supply options.
• Provincial governments can support the transition by mandating utility targets for energy efficiency and demand flexibility, and requiring planners to account for the societal and customer benefits of reduced energy use.

APA

Canadian Climate Institute (2025). Pay people instead of power plants for clean electricity. https://climateinstitute.ca/pay-people-instead-of-power-plants-for-clean-electricity/

Chicago

Canadian Climate Institute. Pay people instead of power plants for clean electricity. 2025. https://climateinstitute.ca/pay-people-instead-of-power-plants-for-clean-electricity/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Canadian Climate Institute |title=Pay people instead of power plants for clean electricity |date=23 January 2025 |url=https://climateinstitute.ca/pay-people-instead-of-power-plants-for-clean-electricity/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{canadianclimateinstitute2025pay, author = {{Canadian Climate Institute}}, title = {{Pay people instead of power plants for clean electricity}}, publisher = {Canadian Climate Institute}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://climateinstitute.ca/pay-people-instead-of-power-plants-for-clean-electricity/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }