This regional plan shows the alternative. Local needs can be met without new bulk transmission, and the IESO’s own rationale for local supply at Sault Ste. Marie, that it reduces reliance on the transmission interface, applies equally to local wind, solar, and battery storage. Resources sited near the load need only local connections, not province-spanning corridors, and can be built faster than central nuclear or major transmission lines. Some transmission will always be needed, but it is a small fraction of what is being proposed, and it is a cumulative ratepayer commitment that the public is never shown in total. Remote communities, in particular, are where local wind, solar, and battery storage should be considered first, rather than waiting for long transmission builds.
Regional transmission and generation decisions are long-lived and effectively irreversible once made. The IESO has shown in this very plan, at Chapleau and Algoma, that real needs can be met with low-cost, right-sized solutions. The Sault Ste. Marie recommendation should be held to the same standard: prove the cost honestly, keep the competition open, and do not lock ratepayers into a fossil-gas plant that the IESO’s own analysis shows is unnecessary.
