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Energy storage projects selected to provide grid-balancing service in Ontario

November 28, 2017 | By Ellen Cools


November 28, 2017 — Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has announced that two new energy storage facilities have been selected to help support the reliability and efficiency of the province’s electricity grid.

The storage facilities, Hecate Energy Ontario Storage VII, LP and Saturn Power Inc., will provide a combined 55 MW of regulation service, a grid-balancing function that corrects for short-term changes in electricity use that might affect the power system’s reliability. These successful projects also represent one of the largest reductions in per-unit regulation costs since Ontario’s electricity market opened, says IESO.

The 55 MW procured through this process will complement the 100 MW of regulation service that is typically scheduled every hour to help ensure the reliable operation of the power system. Regulation service is a requirement under North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) standards.

When regulation is required, the IESO sends an automated signal to the regulation provider, instructing them to adjust the production (or consumption) of their facility within a designated timeframe.

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Under the 2018 regulation request for proposals (RFP), the IESO received 42 submissions representing approximately 350 MW of regulation capacity from a variety of existing and new build facilities, including energy storage and waterpower facilities.

“Our energy system continues to evolve with new players, technologies and changing demand patterns, and as Ontario’s reliability coordinator, we are always looking at new ways to manage the changing conditions on the power system,” said Leonard Kula, vice president of planning, acquisitions and operations, and IESO’s COO. “The important grid-balancing function of regulation service has historically been provided by generators. Today, we are seeing the increasing participation of emerging technologies like storage to cost-effectively help meet our operational needs.”


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