Innovation Spring 2025

I nter-provincial collaboration on energy needs and resources may be significant for Canada’s net-zero goals. P hoto : L umen - digital / istock

The Clean Electricity Strategy, which highlights interprovincial transmission as “critical for moving clean electricity where it is needed most,” includes efforts to facilitate and support interprovincial transmission. Open source models will allow more participants to understand the scopes involved, and present options that will help Canada reach its net-zero ambitions. Expanding access to modelling tools “I think what we need in Canada is open-access, transparent models that we can run on an ongoing basis to understand what policy regulations we need,” said McPherson. “What we’ve had up until now is black-box models – not open-access ones – that consultants have been using to develop decarbonization strategies,” she said. “But if the code is not transparent and the data is not transparent, there can be skepticism around the results.” Private models also limit how much other partner

groups, like nonprofits and academics, can track plan accountability. Open-source models allow these groups to work off common infrastructure and understand how existing and new policies may affect progress toward net-zero goals. By creating models that plot Canada’s current energy capacities and model the outcomes of different trajectories, SESIT equips stakeholders with insights to guide BC and Canada’s energy investments. In June 2024, SESIT Group received $2.5 million from the Clean Prosperity Foundation to expand this work, and significant funding from the Government of Canada to expand on the group’s energy modelling work. The funding is enabling the launch of a comprehensive Open Insights project, which will continue building open-access energy data resources and creating new Canadian energy models. “That’s really my motivation: launching these pan Canadian institutions to do open, transparent energy systems modeling with policy makers,” said McPherson.

Innovation Spring 2025

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