Clean electricity initiative
From: Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
Learn how we are powering federal buildings with clean electricity.
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Our goal
Our goal is to use 100% clean electricity in federal buildings by 2025. To do this, we are supporting the growth of new electricity infrastructure from clean renewable energy sources.
Clean electricity is produced from non-greenhouse gas emitting energy sources. In Canada, the majority of clean electricity generation in the provinces and territories comes from hydroelectric, nuclear, wind, and solar power generation.
Renewable power is an energy resource that occurs naturally and that can be replenished or renewed within a human lifespan, including, but not limited to moving water, wind, heat from the earth and sunlight.
Initiatives in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan will result in new clean renewable electricity infrastructure being built in these provinces.
Buying clean electricity
Some provinces rely mainly on electricity that comes from burning fossil fuels. In provinces with electricity grids that produce high amounts of carbon, we are working with the provinces and utility suppliers to buy clean electricity for our buildings. This will help us meet our clean electricity goal and support the development of new clean renewable power.
Below are some examples of clean electricity we are buying in different parts of Canada.
Alberta
In Alberta, the electricity market is deregulated.
Following a competitive procurement process to buy 100% clean renewable electricity, a 23-year contract worth up to $500 million was awarded to Capital Power on November 25, 2022. Capital Power is an Alberta-based independent power generation company. As of January 1, 2023, they supply the following 11 federal organizations in Alberta with clean renewable electricity:
- National Defence (DND)
- PSPC
- Correctional Service Canada (CSC)
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
- Canada Post
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
- Parks Canada (PCA)
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
- Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
- Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
- Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
During the first 3 years of their contract, Capital Power will build a new wind energy generation facility in Alberta, expected to be operational in 2025. During the construction period Capital Power will supply Canada with Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Canada’s open electricity market that will be used to attribute federal government operations in Alberta to clean renewable sources.
As part of the agreement, Capital Power will secure an equity partnership with local Indigenous organizations related to the project. For the remainder of the contract, federal operations in Alberta will attribute their electricity consumption to this facility through the purchase of electricity and its associated RECs.
Saskatchewan
In Saskatchewan, power is supplied by a provincial Crown corporation, SaskPower.
PSPC established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SaskPower to provide 100% renewable electricity for our operations in Saskatchewan.
To help meet the objectives outlined in the MOU, SaskPower developed a renewable service subscription program where customers can opt to buy clean renewable electricity. Since fall 2022, up to 25% of federal electricity needs in Saskatchewan are being attributed to new solar power generation projects in that province. The remaining 75% will come from a new Saskatchewan-based wind power generation project that will become operational in 2024.
This partnership with SaskPower has allowed 11 federal organizations with operations in Saskatchewan to secure clean renewable electricity from new local wind and solar projects for the next 20 years. These organizations are the RCMP, DND, CSC, AAFC, PSPC, ECCC, PCA, CBSA, NRCan, CFIA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The Alberta and Saskatchewan clean renewable electricity initiatives account for 48% of the Government of Canada’s remaining clean electricity requirements. The remaining requirements will be met by a national REC procurement strategy and procurement programs in Atlantic Canada.
New Brunswick
The Province of New Brunswick has a regulated electricity market. Most electricity is produced or purchased and distributed to customers by New Brunswick Power, a provincial Crown corporation. Some electricity is also produced and distributed by three municipally owned utilities.
We are working with the Province of New Brunswick and the utilities to develop a program to supply clean electricity for federal facilities in the province, with the participation of local Indigenous communities.
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia has a regulated electricity market. Most of the power is produced and distributed by Nova Scotia Power, a privately owned utility. A few municipally owned utilities also produce and supply power.
In 2019, PSPC signed an agreement with the Province of Nova Scotia to purchase renewable electricity for federal Crown facilities in the province through a competitive, provincial process called the Green Choice Program. The program, which will launch in 2023, will allow large-volume customers, such as the federal government, to purchase clean electricity from new clean renewable energy projects built in Nova Scotia.
The Green Choice Program is run by a provincially appointed, independent procurement administrator. Clean electricity will be procured using a competitive bidding process that includes Indigenous participation. Federal organizations that own Crown facilities will purchase this renewable electricity at a fair price.
National Renewable Energy Certificates
PSPC is working to purchase the equivalent of 128,000 megawatt hours (MWh) worth of RECs. The national REC initiative will help government attribute the electricity we use as being clean in regions where new clean renewable sources are not yet available.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are how the generation and consumption of clean renewable electricity is tracked across the world.
For every MWh of electricity a renewable electricity generator adds to an electrical grid, the generator may issue a unique REC. The generation company can choose to:
- sell that REC on the open market
- sell it as a bundled commodity with the electricity produced
- hold onto it until a later date
RECs are bought and sold until the holder decides to retire that REC. By retiring a REC the consumer “takes credit” for 1 MWh of clean electricity and can declare their electricity usage as clean. Retiring a REC means the consumer has claimed that MWh of clean electricity and it can no longer be sold; the clean electricity has been used.