Every summer and winter, Ontario’s demand response resources get tested for real. Enrolled sites are given a curtailment signal, and the province finds out whether the capacity it paid for actually shows up. This June, that test happened again – and the results say something important about where Ontario’s electricity system is headed, and why flexible resources are becoming one of its best investments.
Across our portfolio, resources delivered over 100% of contracted capacity on average, with EnPowered passing across 9 of 9 zones. That’s not a rounding error. It’s a data point worth unpacking, because it touches three separate audiences at once: the grid that’s paying for this capacity, the businesses providing it, and the case for demand response as a category.
Demand Response Is More Valuable Than Ever
Ontario’s most recent capacity auction cleared at roughly $170,000/MW-year, up 188% from the prior year’s ~$59,000/MW-year (we broke this down in detail in Demand Response More Valuable After Ontario’s Latest Capacity Auction). That jump reflects a system that is getting tighter – nuclear refurbishments, delayed new supply, and rising demand are all supporting the IESO’s continued reliance on flexible load to keep the lights on during peak conditions.
That pricing signal matters for anyone weighing whether to participate in demand response. A resource that used to clear in the tens of thousands of dollars per MW-year is now worth roughly three times that. The economics of curtailing load during a handful of daysa year have shifted meaningfully in the customer’s favour.
A Low-Cost Resource for a Tightening Grid
The other side of that story is what this capacity costs the system relative to the alternative. Ontario’s options for meeting rising peak demand are limited: build new generation, sign long-term capacity contracts with generators, or pay existing loads to flex when it matters most.
Demand response is the cheapest of the three. It doesn’t require new steel in the ground or a 20-year contract locking in a generator’s return. It draws on capacity that already exists inside businesses that can shift or shed load for a few hours a year without disrupting their operations. For the grid, that’s a flexible, low-cost hedge against tight system conditions – paid only when it’s called on, and scalable as the system’s needs change from one auction to the next.
The catch is that this only works if the capacity actually shows up when tested. That’s what makes this June’s results worth paying attention to.
How Our Customers Performed in the June Test
Every zone in our portfolio passed. Customers delivered at least 100% of what they were contracted to provide and in some cases the performance was much higher – meaning for every 1 MW a customer bid into the auction based on their own expectations, they delivered that, or more, when it counted.
That overperformance isn’t just a good headline. It has a direct dollar value. At a net rate of roughly $140,000/MW-year to the customer (what they actually earn after program fees), delivering above 100% works out to additional earnings in future seasons ~ for some as much as $75,000 in potential earnings per contracted MW over the course of the year.
For the grid, that same overperformance is a reliability story: the capacity the IESO paid for didn’t just show up, it showed up with room to spare. For customers, it’s a direct return on the effort they put into preparing for test day. And for us, it’s the clearest proof point we have that a hands-on approach to demand response produces better outcomes than treating it as a set-and-forget enrollment.
How We Help Businesses Get There
A perfect result doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the product of treating demand response as an ongoing relationship rather than a signed contract.
Before a test is even scheduled, we review a site’s load shape and baseline consumption to understand how it actually runs, not how a generic assumption says it should. Once a test window is set, we meet with the customer to confirm they’re consuming enough to support their curtailment bid, walk through how they can protect that baseline, and agree on a curtailment plan – who acts, what equipment shuts down, and when – well before test day arrives. For customers with multiple sites, we also look at performance across the whole zone, so a strong site can offset a weaker one rather than each site living or dying on its own.
That’s a minimum of four meetings a season, not a single onboarding call. The goal is simple: customers walk into test day prepared, not exposed, and strong performance becomes something we can help them build on in future seasons rather than a one-time result.
The Bottom Line
Ontario’s capacity market is paying more for demand response than it has in years, and it’s doing so because flexible load is a cheaper way to keep the grid reliable than building new generation or locking into long-term contracts. This June’s test showed that the capacity being paid for is real: every resource in our portfolio passed, and there is the opportunity for some customers to earn even more.
That’s the case for demand response in one result: good for the grid, good for the businesses providing it, and better still when there’s a partner making sure the preparation happens before test day, not after.
If you want to understand what demand response could be worth for your facility, EnPowered is here to help.
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