Largest energy storage system of its kind to be constructed in Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Ste. Marie will have the most competitive business environment in Ontario for utility rates when a new massive energy storage facility is up and running.

Sault Ste. Marie PUC is to present the project to city council Monday.

The partnership, to be called the Customer Energy Management (CMEa) program is a PUC Services initiative with partners Fluence, Siemens and APG.

It will see the construction of a 45MW/165MWh energy storage facility that will reduce the need for expensive peak generation and help businesses lower energy costs.

It will be the largest energy storage system of its kind in Canada.

The project will also significantly reduce Sault Ste. Marie’s carbon footprint.

The bulk energy storage system will be connected to the PUC Distribution network at eight separate feeder locations in order to increase reliability benefits and operational flexibility, the report to council will be told.

Giordan Zin, supervisor of customer engagement at Sault PUC, said two sites are being contemplated, both near the PUC’s transformer stations – one at the east end of town and one at the north end of the city.

The proximity of this energy storage system can also be important to help support critical infrastructure like the Sault Area Hospital and emergency services, Zin said.

Once the location is selected and the design work completed, construction will commence.

Large and mid-sized businesses pay a ‘global adjustment’ as a separate line on their electricity bills.

Class A customers – with an average peak demand of above 1MW have the opportunity to pay global adjustment based on how much their peak demand use contributes to provincial peak demand. It can represent up to 70 per cent of a Class A customer bill and it’s estimated that savings will reach 20 per cent.

Data from 2017 shows there are 4 Class A PUC customers that include high energy users like Sault Area Hospital and Bondar Place.

Class B customers, with a peak demand of 50 kW and up to 5MW, pay the global adjustment on their regular billing cycle. Cost savings are estimated at about four to 5 per cent.

There were 353 Class B customers at the PUC in 2017, mostly smaller manufacturers.

Total projected savings to businesses will be about $3-$5million per year in energy costs, or $100 million over the course of the project.

Other large energy users like Algoma and Tenaris are directly connected to the grid and bypass the PUC system, Zin said.

Global adjustment is set monthly to reflect the differences between the wholesale market price for electricity and other factors including regulated rates for nuclear and hydroelectric generating stations, payments for refurbishing infrastructure and the of delivering conservation programs.

While all Ontario electricity customers pay for global adjustment, it is incorporated in time-of-use rates for residential and small business customer bills.  Residential customers, who received benefit from the province’s Fair Hydro plan, will not receive any benefit from this energy storage system.

The storage project will be designed to be operated as a load during off peak hours and will need about six hours to completely charge.

It will be operated as a generator during peak hours and will have three hours of capacity for Class A customers and 4 hours for Class B customers.

Sieman’s intelligent operating system will create the strategies for different customer classes in order to achieve maximum program savings, the report states.

The project is independently financed and will be paid for by energy savings. It will not require investment from the PUC or the City of Sault Ste. Marie.

Siemens is a global technology company that focuses on electrication, automation and digitalization.

Fluence, a Siemens and AES company, is a global energy storage technology solutions and services company.

The project comes a year after Sault Ste. Marie received its first energy storage system by Convergent Energy. The 7MW energy storage project is located on PUC property in the Trunk and McNabb streets area and adjacent to a transmission substation.

The seven megawatt battery project would be equivalent to the storage of about 70,000 light bulbs. The project can balance 60 megawatts of photvoltaic solar capacity and 150 megawatts of peak load at the end of a 115 kV radical circuit.

Convergent Energy’s storage system provides support for the provincial energy grid.