Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP)

The Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) is an IESO initiative that creates incentives for electricity consumers to help address the reliability needs of the province. ELRP became available in June 2006, and is intended to be an ongoing feature of the IESO-administered market. Distributors, aggregators, and large industrial loads can all play an important role in helping to reduce energy use during critical peak periods and help the IESO to avoid the use of control actions such as emergency energy purchases and voltage reductions, while receiving payments from the IESO for participating.

This program will:

• Allow loads a greater opportunity to provide reliability support by reducing energy usage under stressed system conditions;
• Reduce the reliance on other emergency control actions such as emergency energy purchases and voltage reductions during periods of tight supply and
• Expand the role of demand response in the management of Ontario's electricity system and market.

ELRP is a voluntary program available to all participants including loads and organizations with emergency back-up generation. Load reduction can be accomplished by either curtailing consumption or by increasing onsite embedded generation.

When the IESO foresees the possibility of an emergency event, the ELRP process is initiated on the day-ahead or day-at-hand. This process begins with a notification to participants, followed by a voluntary submission of offers by participants, and if needed, activation of those offers by the IESO. In exchange for a commitment to reduce a specified number of MW, participants will be paid a standby payment of $15/MW until activated, at which time participants would be paid up to $600/MW for actual measured and verified reductions.

Please note that ELRP participants are not obligated to offer load reduction. However, offers made are a commitment and must be activated if called upon.

The ELRP parameters page provides more detailed information on the timelines and payments associated with the program.

For further information, please see the ELRP Market Manual and the ELRP Training page.

This program has been designed to be as inclusive as possible, open to current wholesale market participants, aggregators, and individual embedded loads in order to maximize demand response in times of need.

To participate in the ELRP program, you must:

1. Be a market participant.
2. Submit ELRP application Form 1656.
3. Be able to offer a minimum load reduction capability of 1 MW. You may aggregate quantities to reach this threshold.
4. Submit a measurement and verification plan as part of the registration process. See Appendix B of the ELRP Market Manual for further details.
5. Submit completed original copies of Form 1276 to identify the user or users who will submit ELRP offers and settlement claims through the IESO Portal.

Forward all registration forms and questions to IESO Market Entry at:

Email: market.entry@ieso.ca
Tel: 905-403-6988
Fax: 905-855-6407

Please note that dispatchable loads may also offer a non-dispatchable portion of their load.

Offering Load Reduction and Submitting Claims - Form 1657 and Form 1658

Once approved to participate in ELRP, two settlement forms are needed to ensure any offer or claim submission is processed. These forms are submitted online via the new IESO web portal. The URL to the new IESO portal is: https://portal.ieso.ca/

To assist you with using the web portal and submitting the ELRP forms, please refer to the web portal, claim submission, and offer submission guides.

For users with access to the portal but experiencing difficulties submitting offers or claims online, you may manually submit the forms below by email to customer.relations@ieso.ca, or fax to 905-403-6921.

• ELRP Claim Supporting Data Form (1657)
• ELRP Offer Submission Form (1658)