Elexicon Energy, the fourth largest municipally-owned electricity distributor in Ontario, real estate developer and builder Marshall Homes and Canada's Opus One Solutions, a top 100 Global Cleantech Company, have partnered together to create a living smart grid pilot community called Altona Towns.

Funded by Ontario's Ministry of Energy, Northern Development under the Smart Grid and Grid Innovation funds, the project will test, develop and launch the next generation of technologies that can turn electricity distribution systems into modern, digitally enabled grids.

The Smart Microgrid Community is the first planned nested microgrid project in Canada to integrate a full-scale, operational smart residential energy system. The community includes a rooftop solar, lithium-ion battery energy storage, electric vehicle charging stations, a smart metering system for community use, and an integrated distribution energy service platform to control and coordinate the components of the microgrid.

The project is the culmination of four years of planning, implementation, and technology and equipment installation. It is designed to provide homeowners with increased energy resiliency and reliability, especially during power outages, while also offering an alternative to conventional sources for power that are cleaner, economical and adaptable to future climate change impacts.

Elexicon Energy will gather insights and lessons learned from the deployment, from the distribution substation down to the local community, using Opus One's distributed energy management software platform, GridOS. Learnings will include how and when electricity is used, and how willing homeowners are to shift their energy consumption habits. The Opus One software will be integrated into Elexicon Energy's electricity distribution operations, incorporating microgrid-assisted feeder automation capabilities to enable automated control features such as peak shaving, load shifting, islanding, demand response, and voltage control.

"With climate change a key concern in our era, Elexicon Energy is looking to develop an industry model for a smart grid, with the hopes this project will increase energy distribution reliability and contribute to net zero emissions targets for Canada by enabling wide-scale smart grid implementation in the near future," said Falguni Shah, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Elexicon Energy.

"We're excited to leverage our innovative energy transition technology, GridOS, to advance planning for a smart community infrastructure that increases network resiliency, reduces carbon emissions and decreases energy costs," said Hari Suthan, Chief Strategic Growth Officer at Opus One Solutions. "We are looking forward to deploying our energy solution platform that will digitize energy systems and accelerate decarbonization with smarter energy networks in a local Greater Toronto Area community."

"At Marshall Homes, we are really looking to deliver long-term positive impacts to the community including the adoption of renewable generation," said Craig Marshall, President at Marshall Homes. "Our homeowners will benefit directly from this innovative partnership as they can now generate their own power with more sustainable energy, allowing them to have choice and control over their consumption, leading to lower energy costs and environmental impact."

Elexicon Energy serves over 171,000 residential and business customers and is owned by five municipalities: the City of Pickering, the Town of Ajax, the Town of Whitby, the City of Belleville and the Municipality of Clarington. The project was made possible through the financial support of the Independent Electricity System Operator.

Source: Opus One Solutions