On Thursday June 5th, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) will meet to discuss Evolugen's application for the Marchurst Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Municipal Support Resolution (MSR). CAFES is urging citizens to give a 5-minute delegation in support of the City of Ottawa Council giving an MSR to Evolugen for the Marchurst proposed project.
CAFES has carefully looked at the concerns expressed by the anti-BESS residents, including safety and ecological concerns. We have studied the literature on the risks and benefits of the BESS technology. We have interrogated the Evolugen project proponent on a number of points requiring clarification. We have attended the February 23rd Open House. We have come to the conclusion that the Marchurst site selected by Evolugen is low impact locally with very low risks. At the same time, the benefits of BESS are considerable and numerous, both for residents of Dunrobin, for residents of West Carleton and for the households and businesses served by the grid in the greater Ottawa area.
If you wish to speak, register your request to make a delegation with the committee coordinator Christopher Zwierzchowski (christopher.zwierzchowski@ottawa.ca). Requests to speak must be submitted before 9:00am on the day of committee, and visual presentations must be submitted by 4pm on June 4th.
After the ARAC deliberation and recommendation, the MSR vote will go to City Council on June 11th for a vote. If you wish to support the BESS project, please consider writing to your own councillor before June 10th, urging them to vote in support of the Marchurst BESS MSR.
The CAFES Climate Misinformation team has prepared responses to common concerns and misinformation about BESS projects. These responses will enable you to counter BESS misinformation in a productive, research-backed manner. Check them out now!
CAFES has long been active in advocating for a more enabling planning and zoning regime for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in the City of Ottawa.
Most recently, CAFES delivered an impactful public delegation during the Planning and Housing Committee meeting on February 5th, 2025. You can watch the recording of the committee meeting here (CAFES starts presenting at 59:40) and check out our presentation below. We are concerned that the City’s permitting rules are too restrictive and this will prevent energy storage projects to come to Ottawa.
Prior to this, in October 2024, CAFES made a formal submission when the City made a proposal to amend the Official Plan and pass a Zoning By-law Amendment, and again submitted an alternative proposal when this came to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee (ARAC) on January 23rd, 2025. Watch the ARAC committee recording here (CAFES starts at 1:49:30) and see our presentation at this link.
Our successful lunch and learn event at the Kanata North Technology Park on January 30th, entitled “Ottawa’s Electric Future”, was incredibly successful with about 100 residents, community leaders, not-for-profits, business leaders, tech people, engineers, Ottawa Hydro and City Councillors attending. The session was opened by Councillor Cathy Curry, speaking both as Kanata North Councillor and as acting Deputy Mayor. The launch of the Dunsky BESS Report was well received. You can read more about this event here.
Stay tuned for a full CAFES project report on our BESS advocacy work - coming in March 2025!
Battery Energy storage was all the buzz in October and November 2023 for those of us interested in renewable energy and the energy transition. BESS technology has dramatically improved over the past decade and is now cost effective at utility scale. The Ontario Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) put out a competitive call for proposals in October for procuring over 2,500 megawatts and 5 prospective proponents showed interest in siting their prospective projects near transmission lines in rural Ottawa.
BESS projects will bolster the grids capacity to meet Ontario’s growing electricity consumption, help with peak load (so we don't need to build more gas peaker plants), help balance the intermittent power generation by wind and solar, and can be developed fairly rapidly. More background: BESS FAQ: City of Ottawa.
CAFES became aware of BESS project proponents inviting residents in Ottawa West Carleton to a local consultation meeting in Fitzroy Harbour in late October for meetings in early November. Ironically, it was a fear-mongering message from anti-wind energy activists, presenting BESS as highly flammable, toxic, air and ground water polluting systems, that reached us first. The CAFES climate misinformation team quickly produced a Backgrounder with more balanced information and sent this alongside a call to our network for residents to attend the BESS proponent information meetings. It is important to differentiate between valid community concerns and questions, and misleading messaging that seeks to instill fear, uncertainty and delay (FUD).
Members of the CAFES network attended 3 local in-person meetings, and 2 virtual community consultations. Community response ranged from hostile (Nov 1 Fitzroy Harbour) - to very concerned (Nov 9 Fitzroy Harbour) - to optimistic and curious (Nov 28 Manotick). It was very interesting to observe the range of responses to the different projects that at face value, are more or less the same, but differ in size and location. We witnessed how ‘the mood of the room’ can be palpable and intimidating, how a few agitators can easily incite this mood, and how it matters a great deal who receives the invitation to the meeting and comes. In a similar local consultation for a BESS proposal in Elizabethtown-Kitley, just outside of Brockville, a death threat was uttered and the Toronto-based project proponent has withdrawn.
The second observation was frustration at the process from residents and affected councillors. For the public, their expectation of a consultation was to have all uncertainties answered. The proponents expectation was to present their project, listen attentively to concerns and note what they need to address further along in the design phase if awarded a contract.
The third observation is to question who should have a say? Clearly, direct neighbours to a development must be alerted and informed. Councillors pay most attention to their ward residents. Energy resiliency of the Ottawa-area grid is all of our concern as is the energy transition. So that voices from Arnprior or Kemptville should also be welcome and heard.
On November 30th, the Agricultural and Rural Affairs (ARAC) standing committee (Clrs. Darouze, Kelly, Kitts, Brown, Luloff) met to deliberate on the issuance of municipal support resolutions (MSR) for the BESS projects. If a company received an MSR, they would receive 3 points in their bid to the IESO, and although an MSR isn’t an approval for the project to begin construction, it would help the proponents potentially win a contract from the IESO.
The ARAC meeting saw over a dozen public delegations, including from CAFES and members of CAFES. Overall, two thirds of delegates spoke in favour of granting the MSRs for the BESS projects and one third opposed. A pledge for $3M in local economic benefits (cash for community disposition) from Potentia, one of the Ward 5 proponents, was told this came too late by Clr Kelly.
How did ARAC Vote? The committee had held internal pre-discussions and commenced the meeting with a significant amendment to the staff recommendations, including voting on the MSRs on a project-by-project basis. The project in Ward 20 was not welcomed by Clr Darouze and the proponent retracted before the meeting.The three proposals in Ward 5 (Clr Kelly) were unanimously rejected; the Evolugen proposal in Ward 20 (Clr Brown) received the MSR unanimously. ARAC Chair Darouze was careful to note in his closing comments that this vote should not be understood as NIMBY (not in my back yard) nor as rejecting the technology. The ARAC BESS decisions were then voted through at the December 6th Council meeting on the consent agenda (no discussion).
It was important and significant that the CAFES network was able to spread the word about the BESS consultation meetings and the ARAC meeting on the MSRs (given that ARAC effectively was allowed to serve as the gatekeeper). We were able to raise awareness and mobilize voices of support. We saw the CAFES renewable energy working group grow, and the CAFES climate misinformation team got a chance to execute their work-in-progress process in real time.
The IESO decisions on the BESS contract awards will be made in May 2024. Before then, in Q1 the City of Ottawa will specify planning and zoning requirements for Renewable Energy Facilities. CAFES has been following this file and will take a position in support of renewable energy, distributed energy resources, increased energy resiliency and local economic benefits.
On December 11 2023, the IESO announced that in the forthcoming LT2 round of procurement it will be looking to source 2,000MW of new non-emitting electricity generation, including wind, solar, hydro and bioenergy, to go on-line by 2030. This reflects the new reality of electrical energy needs on the ON grid, as well as cost-effectiveness of renewables which are now the cheapest source of new power.
An overwhelming lesson learned from the November 2023 BESS story is that much work is needed on public information and awareness concerning the grid and energy resiliency. There are important opportunities for the Ottawa region in terms of both general economic benefits from having a strong regional grid, as well as specific local economic benefits as we can require renewable energy and energy storage project developers to engage with our community and share the profits, if not ownership. This requires local leadership.
While it is interesting to watch the COP discussions from afar, the real transition from fossil fuels is taking place locally right in front of us. If you are interested in Renewable Energy, we have a growing CAFES Renewable Energy working group; please contact jcunningham@cafesottawa.ca
On November 21st, CAFES delivered a presentation to the City of Ottawa’s Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting to address Councillor Tierney’s motion for the City to retract the testimony it gave at an Ontario Energy Board (OEB) hearing last year and endorse Enbridge’s proposed natural gas pipeline replacement project along St. Laurent Boulevard.
The $100 Million plus pipeline project was rejected by the OEB in May 2022 because the case for the need for replacement was not persuasive; monitoring and maintenance (rather than replacement) is far more cost effective; and concerns that renewing major fossil fuel infrastructure runs counter to projections of declining gas volumes and the City’s plan to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
CAFES holds that investing in an expansion of gas pipelines makes no sense in the face of efforts to reduce fossil fuels. Equally strikingly, CAFES also pointed out that the project presents an affordability issue. The average residential monthly natural gas bill is $86.43, and Enbridge, as part of its rate hike application to support its gas expansion plans, expects to increase this by $28 to $193 more annually per customer.
CAFES argued that it is inappropriate for Councillors to direct staff to change evidence provided to OEB. Restricting City staff in their professional capacity from participating in regulatory proceedings of the OEB is harmful for the City. Likewise, it is inappropriate for the City to take a position on a new application to the OEB without having reviewed the application. Care must be taken that lobbyists do not have undue influence. Outcome: The Tierney motion was significantly revised, removing the problematic aspects. Enbridge expects to bring its proposal back to the OEB early in the new year with new arguments and evidence for the need for a capital project to replace the pipeline. If approved, construction would begin later in 2024.
