Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and committee, for the invitation to join you today.
I'd like to start by acknowledging that I'm speaking to you today from Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral, unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people, which is covered by the peace and friendship treaties. We're all treaty people. We all benefit greatly from the shared resources of this land.
My name is Chris Milligan. I'm the vice-president of planning and procurement at the Independent Energy System Operator in Nova Scotia. I have over 15 years of experience working in the regulated utility landscape, much of that leading electricity system planning activities. This includes the development of several integrated resource plans for the Nova Scotia electricity system. I have also held responsibility in new system interconnections and energy resource procurement activities. I'm the vice-chair of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council's reliability coordinating committee, a member of Electricity Canada's transmission council and a registered professional engineer in Nova Scotia.
IESO Nova Scotia is an independent, not-for-profit organization created by the province's More Access to Energy Act to take on long-term system planning, new energy resource procurement and transmission grid operations on behalf of Nova Scotians. Importantly, we're structured to be independent of governments, utilities and independent power producers. Our mandate is to deliver a secure supply of electricity for the province and to enable transition to renewable energy while doing so at the best possible cost for Nova Scotians.
Over the last nine months, we've been standing up this new organization and, at the same time, advancing several major priorities critical to maintaining a reliable electricity supply for the province. Coal-fired generation is being phased out, a transition to 80% renewable energy is targeted for 2030 and demand for electricity continues to grow.
These projects include our inaugural integrated resource plan, which will identify resources and programs critical to meeting our province's electricity needs over the next 25 years; overseeing transmission and connection processes crucial to reliably integrating new loads and resources to our transmission system; and procuring urgently needed new-generation resources, including fast-acting natural gas, energy storage and renewable energy resources. These initiatives are essential to Nova Scotia's energy security and supply reliability, but they also support our province's key priorities of affordability, energy transition and enabling economic growth.
Current forecasts demonstrate that the load on the system will continue to grow, driven by population growth, electrification and economic development. A new peak demand record was set in Nova Scotia in January of this year, highlighting this growth in very real terms. This demand strained the current system and confirmed the urgent need for new energy resources. Forecasts for the province anticipate hundreds of megawatts of continued growth in demand through 2035 and beyond.
That's why this is such a pivotal time for Nova Scotia's shift from coal to renewable energy sources to be coming to bear. Nova Scotia's wind resources are world-class. High inverter-based renewable generation is an area of focus for Nova Scotia. We are leading in North America. We have learnings to share and ongoing areas for study. Our exceptional wind resources also present exciting opportunities for the province, like Wind West, our provincial government's ambitious plan to harness offshore wind to power electricity systems on a national scale.
While our mandate is clearly focused on Nova Scotia, we recognize that our electricity grid is part of a broader system and that when systems work together, it can bring significant benefits for electricity customers. Recent concrete examples of this in the Maritimes include the development of an enhanced transmission interconnection between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the agreement for IESO Nova Scotia to purchase capacity from a fast-acting generation facility being developed in New Brunswick. Our organization is keen to study further opportunities to expand electricity partnerships across jurisdictions.
The significant build-out of onshore wind generation and the procurement of the firm capacity and energy storage resources that support it represent the most cost-effective and carbon-minimized energy portfolio that meets the needs of Nova Scotians. The transformation of Nova Scotia's electricity system away from coal is forecast to lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of over 90% relative to 2005 levels. This provides a solid foundation on which economy-wide electrification can lead to further carbon reductions across all sectors of the economy.
This portfolio of energy resources also provides critical energy security, enabling our province to transition away from a reliance on global fossil fuel markets and to instead leverage our own domestic resources—an important advantage for the moment we're in right now.
The Government of Canada has played an integral role in enabling many of the projects that underpin Nova Scotia's energy transition and system reliability—both today and into the future—through funding programs like the smart renewables and electrification pathways program and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, among others. This support has a direct impact on infrastructure resilience and energy affordability in our province. IESO Nova Scotia looks forward to future collaborations that serve our mandate to deliver a secure supply of electricity and to enable the renewable energy transition at the best possible cost to Nova Scotians.
Thank you, members of the committee, for the opportunity to participate today. I look forward to answering your questions.