July 28, 2020 – The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) announced the winners of its 2020 SEPA Power Players Awards, which recognize efforts in project or program design, unique partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and more.

“This year’s Power Players winners showcase innovation in clean energy,” said SEPA president & CEO Julia Hamm. “They are spearheading the visionary projects, innovative programs, and collaborative partnerships that will accelerate the transition to a clean and modern energy future.”

Congratulations to Alectra, which was honoured with Public Power Utility of the Year—the first Canadian electric utility to win this award.

“Alectra has several active pilot projects underway, including AlectraDrive and GridExchange, that aim to accelerate emerging, clean and customer-friendly energy solutions,” says SEPA of the recipient. “Alectra’s Power.House pilot used a group of homes as a virtual power plant (VPP) to evaluate the economic and grid benefits that residential solar storage can contribute to electricity customers and the electricity system in Ontario. In 2019, Alectra expanded the project and developed the Power.House Hybrid demonstration project to evaluate the potential to create net zero energy emissions communities by integrating a hybrid set of electrical and thermal equipment into a VPP platform.”

“Being recognized as the Public Power Utility of the Year by the Smart Electric Power Alliance is confirmation that we’re on the right energy innovation path,” said Brian Bentz, Alectra’s president & CEO.