Atlantic Canada's Energy Future Demands Smarter Grids, Shared Data, and a Skilled Workforce, Industry Network Says

NEWS RELEASE - New Brunswick, Canada

A newly released report calling for coordinated energy planning across Atlantic Canada has found strong support from one of the country's leading clean energy organizations and the case it makes, advocates say, extends well beyond the region.

The Smart Grid Innovation Network Canada (SGIN) is endorsing An Atlantic Canadian Energy Future, a report developed for the Atlantic Energy Collective, a pan-Atlantic initiative drawing together more than 30 organizations representing utilities, Indigenous partners, industry, labour, researchers, and national energy policy bodies. SGIN CEO Greg Robart, who served on the Collective's Steering Committee, says the report captures pressures that are building across Canada, not just in the Atlantic provinces.

"Regional collaboration is not just a policy conversation," said Robart. "It is the foundation that will unlock the electrification, smarter energy management, and the trusted data-sharing needed to build the grid of the future."

A Region Under Pressure

Atlantic Canada's electricity systems face a convergence of challenges that, the report argues, can no longer be managed province by province. Coal plants are retiring. Infrastructure is aging. The capital required to maintain reliability while advancing decarbonization has grown beyond what any single small province can finance alone. Meanwhile, energy costs are rising faster than household incomes across the region, and available power capacity has become a barrier to attracting industrial investment.

The report's central argument is that fragmented planning is making all of these problems worse and that the moment to act is now, before a narrow window for meaningful federal partnership closes.

Why This Report Matters Beyond Atlantic Canada

The report's findings touch on three areas that SGIN considers foundational to Canada's clean energy transition wherever it unfolds. 

The first is the growing role of local, community-scale energy. As more Canadians generate their own electricity through rooftop solar, store it in home batteries, and manage their energy use through smart devices, the grid must be designed to handle power flowing in multiple directions - not just from large central plants to consumers. Coordinating this patchwork of local sources and storage, alongside traditional generation, is one of the defining technical challenges of modernizing Canada's electricity systems.

The second is access to reliable, sovereign energy data. The report calls for a shared data and modelling platform to underpin regional planning  and SGIN argues this is inseparable from questions of equity and governance. Indigenous communities and Rightsholders must have meaningful access to, and ownership of, the data that shapes decisions affecting their lands and interests. Without it, credible and durable regional planning cannot happen.

The third is workforce. The scale of infrastructure renewal facing Atlantic Canada and Canada broadly will require far more trained workers than the sector currently has. The report flags labour availability as a genuine constraint on the region's ability to deliver multiple major projects at once, a challenge SGIN's training and knowledge programs are designed to help address.

A Blueprint Grounded in National Policy

SGIN's endorsement of the report carries weight beyond organizational alignment. Robart served as a contributing member of the Canada Electricity Advisory Council (CEAC), an independent expert body that delivered 28 recommendations to the federal Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in May 2024. That report, organized around the themes of aligning goals, enabling the build, supporting the transition, and saving to lighten the load, was a key input into the federal government's Clean Electricity Strategy released in December 2024.

The regional priorities laid out in An Atlantic Canadian Energy Future reflect many of those same national recommendations, giving the Collective's framework both practical grounding and policy credibility.

The Path Forward

The report does not call for immediate structural overhaul. Instead, it outlines a sequenced framework beginning with shared technical and economic analysis, a common foundation from which trust can be built and value demonstrated before more formal governance arrangements are pursued. The first step calls for a regional all-energy model and integrated resource plan, drawing on existing provincial plans as inputs.

SGIN supports the approach as a necessary starting point - one that builds trust, reduces duplication across the region, and lays the groundwork for the deeper grid integration that modern energy technologies make possible.

About Smart Grid Innovation Network Canada (SGIN)

The Smart Grid Innovation Network Canada is the only industry association dedicated to advancing clean energy system thinking across Canada. As a non-profit, member-driven organization, SGIN enables the decarbonization and electrification of Canada's energy systems by supporting real implementation and providing a centralized focus for knowledge, best practices, and experience from leading smart energy communities, including utilities, governments, companies, organizations, and small and medium-sized enterprises. SGIN's services include the Energy Data Trust, the Smart Utility Performance Index, DER 101 Fundamentals training, and the International Trade and Learning Program.

CEO Greg Robart served as a contributing member of the Canada Electricity Advisory Council, whose 28 recommendations to the federal government - covering grid alignment, enabling investment, workforce transition, and demand management are directly echoed in the priorities this Atlantic report advances.

Learn more at www.sgin.ca

About the Atlantic Energy Collective

The Atlantic Energy Collective is a region-wide initiative of more than 30 organizations representing industry, Indigenous partners and Rightsholders, utilities, researchers, labour interests, and national policy organizations. The Collective was formed in recognition that Atlantic Canada's current energy framework cannot respond at the scale and pace required to sustain affordability, reliability, and economic growth. SGIN acknowledges the Atlantica Centre for Energy for its leadership in convening the diverse voices, regional, national, and international, that shaped this report, and thanks the more than 30 organizations whose contributions defined its direction.

Media Contact: Greg Robart, CEO Smart Grid Innovation Network Canada greg@sgin.cawww.sgin.ca

To read the full report: An Atlantic Canadian Energy Future — An Atlantic Canadian Energy Future

For more on the Canada Electricity Advisory Council and its final recommendations:natural-resources.canada.ca/energy-sources/canada-electricity-advisory-council