CENTRE WELLINGTON – Increasing demand on the electrical grid and the drive by government to electrify cars is causing the province to stare down an impending power supply shortage by 2028, according to David Anders – and the Belwood area could be part of a solution.
Anders is director of “distributed energy solutions” for Alectra, a utility company serving 17 communities, including Rockwood and Guelph.
Together with U.S.-based Convergent Energy and Power, Alectra is pitching the community and Centre Wellington on a battery storage facility proposed on 13 acres of rural property along Wellington Road 18.
Anders spoke about the proposal during an informal Nov. 15 online information session, joined by Convergent’s senior VP of development Tremor Temchin.
“[The load is] growing through both economic activity, as well increasingly converting to electric power for things like heating and electric vehicles,” Anders said, adding supply is going down at a time when demand is going up.
Nuclear power generation plants in Bruce and Pickering are scheduled to be refurbished, and the Darlington plant is being retired.
The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), the organization that manages power supply for the province, is looking to lithium ion batteries to get ahead of the problem.
Certain companies have been qualified by the IESO to put proposals forward for battery storage facilities on 20-year contracts, bringing about the joint Alectra-Convergent venture known as “Alectra Convergent Development JV.”
In total, the group has proposed eight energy storage projects, including the one near Belwood.
Batteries are sourced from companies such as Tesla and Fluence, and are assembled in modular containers.
Once they’re charged, the energy is stored until the ISEO calls for the power to be released into the grid.
“We have to be on standby, ready to go,” Anders explained, adding the ISEO would expect the facilities to deliver four hours of uninterrupted power anytime between 7am and 11pm.
Batteries would be recharged from nuclear and hydroelectric sources overnight, when demand on the grid is lowest.
Anders said the energy storage facilities will help maintain the stability and reliability of Ontario’s power grid, especially during peak hours of demand, when several hundred megawatts of energy can be supplied in minutes.
Battery storage systems have been used within Ontario’s power grid for the past decade, according to Temchin of Convergent.
“It’s at a level now … that these technologies can be deployed at this scale,” Temchin said.
Similar facilities to the one being proposed already exist in Windsor, Sarnia, the GTA, Kingston, Barrie and Sault Ste. Marie, but Temchin noted they aren’t yet prevalent in Canada.
“This is one of the last areas in Ontario that has available capacity for new generation on the transmission grid,” Temchin said of Wellington County.
“That’s the reason you’re seeing this cluster of development in [the] area.”
The project is only at the proposal stage, and Alectra Convergent Development JV would have a number of formal planning and approval processes to navigate, meaning they’re after local buy-in.
“We are seeking municipal council support for our proposal,” Temchin said, noting it wouldn’t be an approval, but rather a show of support for the proposal.
Initial proposals to the ISEO are due Dec. 12, and successful applicants are expected to be announced during the first half of the new year.
Support from Centre Wellington council is one thing, but at least one county farmer has already voiced opposition, and the Wellington Federation of Agriculture (WFA) has expressed concerns in a written letter addressed to local municipalities.
“That’s a lot of land just to lose to a battery [facility],” Will Makxam remarked during the Nov. 15 session.
A farmer at River’s Edge Goat Dairy near Arthur, Makxam expressed concern over a potential loss of agricultural land that would only benefit urban areas in Windsor and Sarnia where power demand is heavy.
“All of the best land in the world is right here and we’re building a battery [facility] on it,” Makxam said.
“You can’t put it in our backyard, period; it will not happen,” Makxam asserted, suggesting the facilities could be built closer to city boundaries.
Temchin explained that Hydro One, with available land and transmission lines, had been approached but was “unwilling to offer that land for this type of development.”
“We’re doing the best we can to be responsive to this feedback and to find solutions that are more focused in the load centres,” Temchin said.
“It’s very challenging right now with the way the ISEO is running the procurement,” he added without articulating.
Should Alectra Convergent Development JV be successful, construction could begin as early as 2025 with the system coming online between 2027-28.
