Words like microgrids, smart homes, solar power and electric vehicles used to be fantasy, but guess what – all of it is happening in Pickering, Ontario.
Elexicon Energy recently partnered with Opus One Solutions and Marshall Homes to build a preplanned microgrid for a community of 27 townhomes in Pickering. You may wonder why this is important. Well, it is special because it’s the first preplanned residential community with nested microgrid in the country.
This pilot project received funding from Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) under the Smart Grid and IESO Grid Innovation funds. This smart grid community features electric vehicle charging stations, rooftop solar panels, lithium-ion battery energy storage, and an innovative smart metering system for community use. By using Opus One Solutions software platform GridOS® residents are able to monitor their electricity usage and increase or decrease how they use electricity in a more efficient way.
It’s exciting to be a part of this novel microgrid; from conceptualization to completion – a good collaborative model for new housing development. This will be a true test and learn environment for us as an electric utility. Elexicon Energy will be able to gather insights and lessons learned from the deployment from the transmission station, down to the local community. It will help us better understand how and when electricity is used, how willing homeowners are to adopt renewable energy and other distributed energy resources and shift their energy consumption habits.
This is no longer something from a science fiction movie, this community is now a reality that homeowners are experiencing. We’re looking forward to watching the community flourish and for more opportunities to use technological advances to serve even more of our customers in the future. For more information or to see the community watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRODQPqSx6w
By Elexicon Energy and Project Partners
