Comprehensive Option Assesment - UNEP

Module 2: Comprehensive Options Assesment Stages
Box 11
Building options
portfolios and
plans: Canadian
examples
Over a three-year period starting in the late 1980s, Ontario Hydro undertook a multi-year Demand-Supply Review
with an extensive public consultation process. At that time, it relied on nuclear generation for close to 70 percent of
supply. The process involved the sequential development of a new load forecast for the Province of Ontario and
preparation of a series of portfolios for demand management and supply development. The various options were
compared within each portfolio, assembled into a series of portfolio plans and the plans were compared. A demand
management plan, an infrastructure rehabilitation and management plan, and plans for each major supply optionincluding
nuclear, hydro, thermal, co-generation, renewables, inter-fuel substitution, and fuel-switching-were
developed. Eventually a proposed Demand/Supply plan and three alternative Demand/Supply Plans were prepared
and presented to the government.
At each step in the process-options identification, evaluation, and portfolio plan formulation there were extensive
public consultations, hearings, and public debate. Ontario Hydro funded submissions from NGOs and civil society
based on published criteria.
Hydro Quebec, which relied primarily on hydropower generation, used a different approach to engage the public and
stakeholders in strategic-level power options assessment. They assessed a series of generic environmental
comparisons of power generation options (wind, solar, hydro, cogeneration, tidal power, conventional thermal)
against criteria such as life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, acid precipitation, land requirements, energy payback,
and biodiversity impact. They fed these comparisons into the public debate about options. For the key hydropower
portfolio, Hydro Quebec introduced a 'Triple Bottom Line' – community agreement had to be secured, projects had to
be economically feasible, and projects had to be environmentally acceptable. When considering options for its
hydropower portfolio, Hydro Quebec introduced a practice where community agreement was simultaneously sought
on a number of possible sites that had been studied to a very preliminary level. The normal cycle of preparing project
studies to confirm environmental and technical feasibility was commenced only for those sites where community
acceptance had been reached. This turned around the usual practice, where economic and environmental studies are
undertaken before community agreement is sought.
Sources: Ontario Hydro, 1990; Hydro Quebec, 2001.
Comprehensive Options Assessment for sustainable development of infrastructure
Training Manual
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