Electricity Industry Consortium Launches Alberta Storage Alliance

July 21, 2016

A consortium of private sector energy experts has launched the Alberta Storage Alliance (ASA) to advance the deployment of energy storage technologies across the province of Alberta.

The ASA believes energy storage can bring significant benefits to the Alberta Interconnected Electricity System, and has the following two goals:

• help energy market stakeholders, regulators and politicians better understand how to integrate energy storage

• ensure the province takes full advantage of these technologies

A number of recommendations appear in a recently released white paper: Energy Storage: Unlocking the Value for Alberta’s Grid. 

Consortium members include BYD, Enercon, ENMAX, General Electric, NRStor, Opus One Solutions, RES, Rocky Mountain Power, S&C Electric, Temporal Power, and UniEnergy Technologies.

“We are truly excited to launch the ASA — a group with broad representation across the industry,” says Annette Verschuren, NRStor Chair and CEO, on behalf of the ASA. “We look forward to the opportunity to work with the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA) and Alberta government to enhance the enormous opportunity for energy storage in Alberta. These innovative technologies will be essential to meet the province’s renewable energy objectives and can greatly optimize our existing infrastructure.”

In November 2015, the Alberta government announced a new climate leadership plan; central to the plan is transitioning the province’s energy production away from coal and towards renewables. Alberta will almost certainly require solutions in four key areas: renewables integration, managing price volatility, maintaining supply adequacy, and ensuring grid reliability.

Energy storage can play an important role in navigating this transition by providing proven solutions to each of these challenges, says ASA. Energy storage technologies can balance the grid by storing excess electricity and reinjecting it at a more optimal time. The successful deployment of energy storage in electricity systems around the world has demonstrated its ability to swiftly react to system needs, making storage a compelling solution for Alberta.

Find out more about ASA: http://albertastoragealliance.com/.