Innovation Exchange: Ontario's Generating Fleet
An invitation only executive breakfast for the people who keep Ontario's wind, gas, nuclear and heavy industry assets running.
Description
Ontario's generating fleet is being asked to run longer and harder than it was designed for. Nuclear refurbishment runs through 2033. Gas plants built for steady output now start and stop to back up wind and solar. Wind fleets are aging past warranty. The people responsible for keeping those assets reliable rarely sit in the same room, even though they share the same problem.
On October 29, they will.
What this is
A closed door breakfast for 35 to 40 senior leaders who own, operate and maintain Ontario's wind, gas and nuclear plants and heavy industry sites, together with the contractors, turbine manufacturers' service teams and testing labs who keep them running. The morning is held under the Chatham House Rule: what is said can be used, but not attributed.
What you get out of the morning
A peer room across technologies. Wind, gas and nuclear leaders usually only meet within their own associations. Here, wind operators, nuclear refurbishment teams and gas plant operations leaders sit at the same tables, comparing notes on the one problem they all share.
The people shaping 2027. Opening remarks from [speaker, to be announced] on what the system needs from existing assets.
Owners and suppliers at the same table. Generators alongside the refurbishment contractors, OEM service teams and qualification labs they work with every day. A room operators cannot easily assemble themselves.
Candid conversation on the real questions. Time with peers and colleagues across the fleet to compare how they are approaching life extension, where maintenance costs are heading and what is actually working on reliability, discussed openly because it stays in the room.
An early look. A first look at three technologies already in commercial use with major operators, and first choice of 1:1 times during TBDC Sprint Week, November 23 to 27.
The morning
8:00: Breakfast served
8:10: Opening remarks from TBDC and co-hosts
8:20: Operator keynote with special guest
8:30: Curated networking roundtables
9:20: Book your TBDC Sprint Week 1:1 and Close
Curated tables
You will be seated at the table closest to your fleet:
Wind fleets past warranty: reliability and re-powering
Gas fleets cycling harder: life extension and outages
Nuclear refurbishment, heavy industry and outage execution
Three technologies, shown as answers
Each table gets a first look at technology already proven with major operators, introduced by a short field video from the team behind it and walked through by a TBDC host:
Predicting wind and solar equipment faults months before they fail, using the sensor data you already collect. No hardware to install, live in two to three weeks, and monitoring more than 2.5 GW across 12 countries for operators including TotalEnergies, Galp and Van Oord.
Knowing how much life a gas plant's critical high temperature parts have used, calculated from the plant's own operating data, so repairs are planned before cracks appear. Prototyped with funding from EPRI, the power industry's research institute.
Attaching and repairing equipment on towers, plants and ships with adhesive bonding instead of welding or drilling, without shutting the asset down. Approved by DNV for wind, accepted in nuclear plants in France, and in use with Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, ExxonMobil, Shell and EDF.
Who is in the room
Senior leaders from across Ontario's wind, gas, nuclear and heavy industry fleet: generators and asset owners, refurbishment contractors, OEM service teams, testing labs, and engineering and plant data partners such as WSP, alongside system leaders and associations such as the IESO, APPrO, CanREA and OCNI. Expect heads of O&M, plant managers, asset management and asset integrity leads, and outage and refurbishment leads.
Practical details
Invitation only. Seats are limited to 35 guests.
Chatham House Rule applies throughout.
Breakfast is served from 7:30.
Based outside Toronto? TBDC Sprint Week 1:1s, November 23 to 27, can be held by video call.
About TBDC
Toronto Business Development Centre is a not-for-profit innovation hub founded in 1990 by the City of Toronto, running innovation programs supported by the Government of Canada. We work on both sides of the ecosystem: hands on with growth stage companies on commercialization, and with Canadian operators to put vetted technology in front of the people whose priorities overlap.