The Canadian Energy Reliability Council’s mission to build new models of collaboration across the entire energy system and help reframe how policy-makers and the public think about reliability.
What is Energy Reliability?
Most people have an intuitive sense of energy reliability: Can I find somewhere reasonably close to refuel my car. and is that facility open when I need it? When I come home and turn on the switch, does the light go on? And when winter comes and the temperature drops, does the heating system in my home provide me with the warmth I need?
A reliable energy system answers yes to all these questions. Perhaps not every time – it is difficult for any system to deliver anything 24 by 7 for 365 days of the year, each and every year. However, as long as the times when energy isn’t available are brief and infrequent most people are satisfied.
Resilience is closely related to reliability and the intuitive sense of energy reliability people have also includes the notion of resiliency. Resilience relates to reliability and includes how people perceive energy reliability. Reliability refers to normal operations, while resilience is about adapting to disruptions. Both terms are often used interchangeably in contexts like power grids and pipelines.
What we do:
- Maintain an information library on energy reliability and resiliency.
- Enhance cooperation amongst jurisdictions within Canada to promote the reliability and resiliency of energy systems.
- Work with industry, the federal government, provincial governments and regulators to deepen understanding about reliability and resiliency.
- Encourage, support and enhance public discussion about energy reliability and resiliency.
- Where appropriate, comment on the reliability and resiliency impacts of proposed policy.
What we don’t do:
- Comment on any specific reliability issue related to any specific utility or energy supplier.
- Advocate for or against the substantive merit of any particular environmental, social or other policy that may or may not have an impact on reliability.
- Advocate for or against any specific reliability standard, rule or other requirement for any utility or anyone else involved in the delivery of energy.