In November, the OLIP interns had the privileged opportunity to meet with Rachel Thompson and David Donovan from Ontario Power Generation (OPG). Rachel is Senior Manager of Provincial Affairs, and David is the Vice President of Corporate Business Development & Strategy. David was an OLIP Intern in the 2008-2009 cohort, which makes it exciting for us to connect with one of our alumni!
Although Ontario has an open electricity market, the provincial government, as OPG's sole shareholder, regulates the price the company receives for its electricity to be less than the market average to stabilize prices. It was valuable to understand better OPG's role in producing over 50% of Ontario's electricity. During our discussions, we had the opportunity to explore some of the key issues facing the power industry, including those related to trade and the United States. Ongoing discussions at both the provincial and federal levels regarding trade and tariffs made meeting with OPG valuable for providing additional context for our work at Queens Park and following current events. It was informative to hear directly from OPG about the evolving landscape of the field and insightful to learn about various aspects of the clean energy transition, including batteries and storage, hydro, small modular reactors, hydrogen, and more.
All in all, we had a wonderful conversation with Rachel and David, and it was great to learn more about this sector. Thank you again to the OPG for their ongoing support of the OLIP programme. Your longstanding partnership with OLIP is deeply appreciated!
