Ontario's wholesale electricity market is the hub at the centre of our system matching buyers and suppliers in real time, ensuring reliability and efficient dispatch all the time. In many respects this dynamic marketplace, administered by the IESO, has been the unsung hero of the Ontario electricity sector accommodating the once in a lifetime changes that are occurring - phase out of flexible coal-fired generation, renewables, smart meters and step changes in technology advancement such as energy storage. In this talk I will explore how other market based mechanisms such as Demand Response and Capacity auctions could add value to Ontario consumers by lowering costs, facilitating technology development and providing much needed flexibility in the face of future uncertainties. We will explore what is it about market-based approaches that enable our current markets to perform efficiently and how could these concepts be applied to other aspects of the electricity sector.

Tom Chapman, Markets Group, Independent Electricity System Operator

Tom has close to 20 years of wide ranging energy industry experience spanning public, private and consulting roles across North America and Europe. His career began in the U.K. where he worked for a joint venture start-up competing in the newly liberalised natural gas market. After moving to Ontario 10 years ago, Tom worked at the Ontario Ministry of Energy, most recently as Director, Transmission and Distribution Policy where he was responsible for many electricity policy initiatives such as planning for coal phase out, smart grid, network policy and energy storage. For just over a year Tom has been working for Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator where he is responsible for Market Design and Development. In his spare time Tom is a keen cyclist, sometimes competing, but mostly just to enjoy Ontario's increasingly emissions free fresh air and spending time with his active family.

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