Batteries to help balance power grid
Shipping containers packed with power will get renewable energy to consumers during peak periods
KITCHENER — The white shipping containers at the substation for Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro at 59 Graber Place will play an important role in providing electricity as more renewable power is produced.
Currently, there are 10 shipping containers on the property with batteries that can take a charge and discharge electricity at the same time. That facility can provide two megawatts of electricity to the grid for three hours. It is being built by Chicago-based Hecate Energy, and will be quieter than the electrical substation beside it.
“It will likely be operational by the end of the year,” said Gabriel Wapner, Hecate’s director of development. “It is being commissioned next month.”
Hecate Energy plans to expand that facility, and shared information at a small public meeting with some neighbourhood residents Friday afternoon at the Stanley Park Community Library.
Wapner said Hecate wants to place another 10 containers on top of the ones already on the property to hold more batteries. As well, the company will submit a bid next week to build a second power storage facility on that site. Hecate does not know at this point if the second facility will be made up of more containers or a new building.
In 2014 Hecate won seven contracts from the IESO — the Independent Electricity System Operator — to build seven power storage facilities on three different sites, including the one Kitchener.
All are currently under construction, and should be working by year’s end, including the one on Graber Place.
The IESO monitors and balances the province’s grid on a second-by-second basis, which becomes trickier as more electricity is produced by solar panels and wind turbines. Electricity production from renewable sources is intermittent — during the day for solar, and mostly at night for wind — so power storage facilities like the one of Graber Place are needed to ensure there is enough to meet demand during peak hours in the mornings and evenings.
“Energy storage allows you to store the energy generated at night and deploy it during the day,” said Wapner.
A couple of residents who live on Dalewood Drive, which is next to the hydro substation property, want trees planted to screen the containers, security cameras to discourage graffiti artists and construction workers to comply with a city bylaw that limits noisy work to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In the past, turbines would be used to meet demand during hours of peak consumption. But that was costly, and emitted a lot of pollution.
“Until recently battery storage has not been cost competitive, but today it is and the costs continue to fall,” said Wapner.
The power storage facilities will become increasingly important in the future. Ontario closed its coal-fired plants, and has started to retire some nuclear reactors. Renewable energy from solar and wind will need to be stored in the battery banks to meet demand.
Hecate is also building a power storage facility in Stratford that will be inside a 20,000-square-foot building.