PowerStream begins building unique backup power supply system

Penetanguishene Micro Grid delivers battery storage, island-mode resilience, and renewable integration for Ontario customers. Connected to a distribution network, the system by PowerStream and KEPCO provides blackout protection and remote performance monitoring from Vaughan.

PENETANGUISHENE, ON – PowerStream broke ground recently on the construction of a unique system that, when completed in 2016, will provide up to 11 hours of backup power supply for approximately 400 of the utility’s customers residing or owning a business in Penetanguishene.

The high-tech equipment for what is being referred to as the Penetanguishene Micro Grid, will be installed adjacent to PowerStream’s Robert Street Municipal Substation located east of the town’s Main Street. It will be comprised of two 500 kilowatt-hours kWh batteries as well as a 750 kilowatt power control system and connected to a distribution powerline that provides service to customers in an area of the town bounded approximately by Robert Street East in the south, Hill Top Avenue in the north, Lecarron Avenue in the west and east of Centennial Drive.

The Penentanguishene Micro Grid will be able to operate either connected to the smart 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, supporting renewable power resiliency as needed.

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 such as Fort Frances or even just one customer. Micro Grids rely on a mix of clean and renewable sources of generation, and in some cases take an underground microgrid form, 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.

Related News

• Electricity Forum News

• Grid Technologies News