The Policy and Pricing Case for Heat Pump Growth: Making heat pumps affordable to support smart grid growth

Canada has committed to doubling its electricity system and retrofitting up to 1 million homes, and a large share of that new demand will come from electrifying homes and buildings. Whether that growth is affordable or costly depends on decisions made in this sector — including the roughly 200,000 central air conditioning installations Canadian households make every year.

This session tackles heat pump affordability as two distinct challenges and asks what industry should do about each. Upfront affordability depends on the price premium at the point of sale, potentially addressed through midstream industry support that makes heat pumps the standard offer at the cooling purchase every household already makes — no heating mandate, no consumer paperwork, and benefits for every household, heat pump owner or not. Operating affordability depends on the spark gap, the electricity-to-gas price ratio closely linked to regional adoption; new BDA analysis examines the levers — rate design, gas bill rebalancing, RNG blending requirements, and electricity support — that regulators, utilities, and governments can use to narrow it.

Join a working discussion on what to push for, what to deliver, and how to move both forward - for Canada’s affordability, competitiveness and energy security.