As Canada faces increasing pressure to build a more resilient, reliable and secure energy system, a new report from the CSA Public Policy Centre highlights the need for a coordinated national approach to energy security supported by standards, a key focus of CSA Group's work supporting Canada's future-ready infrastructure.
The report, titled A Renewed Approach to Energy Security in Canada, broadens the definition of energy security beyond supply, defining it in terms of availability, reliability, and resilience across integrated energy systems. It examines emerging pressures across the energy landscape, including rising demand, infrastructure constraints, supply chain challenges, and growing climate risks, as well as structural barriers like jurisdictional complexity and fragmented governance. It also sets out recommendations to help address these issues, pointing to standards as a practical tool to support more harmonized approaches to the design, operation, and management of energy systems across jurisdictions.
The report highlights how standards can support energy security by:
- Supporting system reliability and safety across energy systems including generation, transmission, and storage
- Facilitating the integration of new technologies
- Promoting interoperability and shared frameworks across jurisdictions, technologies, and supply chains
- Strengthening risk management and preparedness in the face of climate and geopolitical disruptions
"Energy security is fundamental to Canada's economic resilience and long-term prosperity," said Larisa Logan, Energy Systems, Standards, CSA Group. "Standards provide a common framework that helps ensure energy systems remain safe, reliable, and adaptable as technologies and needs evolve."
As Canada's energy systems continue to evolve and expand across all energy sources and systems, standards will play an increasingly important role in helping inform system safety and performance requirements, which can help enable more coordination of regulatory and operational environments.
The report also identifies opportunities to strengthen the role of standards in Canada's energy system and points to the need for more coordinated approaches to infrastructure planning and long-term system management across federal, provincial, and Indigenous parties, particularly as climate-related events and global disruptions place added strain on energy systems. Standards can support these efforts by providing frameworks for resilience, emergency preparedness, and system reliability that are applied across jurisdictions, helping organizations and governments better anticipate and respond to emerging risks.
The report contributes to CSA Group's ongoing work on future-ready infrastructure, highlighting the vital but often invisible role of standards research, development, education, and advocacy in helping Canada plan, build, and operate infrastructure that is safer, more reliable, and future-ready.
About CSA Group
CSA Group is a global organization dedicated to safety, social good and sustainability. We are a leader in North American standards development and in product testing, inspection and certification around the world. Our mandate is to hold the future to a higher standard.
