CUTRIC launches power providers and utilities transit decarbonization committee

The Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) launched the Power Providers & Utilities Transit Decarbonization Committee. 

The committee launch comes in the wake of CUTRIC publishing a comprehensive market scan of Canadian utilities’ transit electrification strategies and after five years of leading a power providers working group. 

Launched on Feb. 28, as a unique national forum for CUTRIC members, the Power Providers & Transit Decarbonization Committee creates strategic pathways for utilities to support the deployment of zero-emission buses (ZEBs) across North America. It is achieving this by sharing up-to-date data and information on utility sector experiments, pilots and regulatory outcomes; informing stakeholders about relevant legislative and regulatory decision-making; and identifying and overcoming challenges within funding and financing programs. 

“A cement wall blocking transit agency electrification across Canada today is the lack of utility leadership in transit initiatives overall,” said CUTRIC President and CEO Josipa Petrunic.  “That leadership is impeded by provincial governments, which need to provide new climate-oriented energy laws that open regulatory windows for electricity regulators and utilities to invest in zero-emission transit fueling programs, such as special rates for overnight charging, demand charge holidays and other programs meant to distribute the cost of electrification on day one.”  

Chaired by Tecium’s Sherena Hussain, the bi-monthly committee already includes major players in Canada’s energy market, including BC Hydro, Enbridge, Manitoba Hydro, Hydro One and Alectra among others. 

“Aligning the interests of transit agencies with those of regulated utilities will accelerate transit decarbonization in the most cost-effective manner for taxpayers and rate payers alike,” Petrunic said. “Utilities with robust strategies for transportation electrification are hugely beneficial to the provinces in which they operate because they foster technology development and efficient energy systems that reduce long-term burdens on both taxpayers and rate payers. Most importantly, they help solve the problem of climate change and planetary warming.”