PowerStream Begins Building Microgrid Backup Power Supply System

PowerStream has broken ground on the construction of a microgrid in Penetanguishene, ON that, when completed in 2016, will provide up to 11 hours of backup power supply for 400 of the utility’s residential and commercial customers.

The high-tech equipment for what is being referred to as the Penetanguishene Micro Grid, will be installed adjacent to a PowerStream municipal substation. It will comprise two 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) batteries as well as a 750 kilowatt power control system, and be connected to a distribution powerline.

PHOTO : (L-R), Gerry Marshall, Mayor, Town of Penetanguishene; Ann Hoggarth, MPP, City of Barrie; Dr. Choi, In-Gyu, Senior Vice President, KEPCO Research Institute; Jeff Lehman, PowerStream Board member and Mayor, City of Barrie; Mark Henderson, EVP Asset Management and COO, PowerStream; Brian Bentz, President and CEO, PowerStream.

The Penetanguishene Micro Grid will be able to operate either connected to the grid (grid mode) or disconnected from the grid (island mode). It will enable PowerStream to provide power to customers even when there is a loss of supply from the provincial grid.

Micro Grids work in the same way as large-scale electricity delivery systems or a provincial grid, but instead of delivering electricity to hundreds of thousands or millions of customers at a time, they can be scaled down and customized to meet the needs of communities or even just one customer. Micro Grids rely on a mix of clean and renewable sources of generation and can operate independently or feed electricity back to the provincial grid.

The Penetanguishene Micro Grid will be operated from PowerStream’s System Control Centre at the company’s head office in Vaughan with remote accessibility for performance monitoring via the Internet by the company’s project partner, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

In November 2013, PowerStream became one of the first utilities of its size in North America to initiate a proof-of-concept Micro Grid as a demonstration project at the company’s head office in Vaughan, ON.