Vaughan, Ontario: PowerStream announced the signing October 7 of a partnership agreement with Thunder Bay Hydro that will allow the Northern Ontario-based electricity distribution company to take advantage of a residential solar-storage technology currently being piloted with customers in York Region and Simcoe County under the program name “POWER.HOUSE”.
The partnership agreement between the two utilities is in response to a growing interest within the industry to introduce residential solar-storage technology to Ontario customers. Bringing POWER.HOUSE to the Thunder Bay area will also provide PowerStream with an opportunity to learn how the technology performs in northern geographies where daylight periods are significantly longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.
Funded by the Independent Electricity System Operator, POWER.HOUSE represents Canada’s first Virtual Power Plant (VPP) using an aggregate fleet of 20 residential solar and battery storage systems located at customers’ homes. All 20 systems can be autonomously controlled through intelligent software to simulate a single, larger power generating facility. The technology, which features a combination of rooftop solar PV panels and a lithium-ion battery installed behind the meter at customers’ homes, helps to protect against power outages, off-sets peak hour electricity rates to provide significant reductions on bills and reduces impact during peak system demand, while delivering clean power directly to the customer.
Two days earlier, PowerStream had been honoured with an Energy Storage North America (ESNA) Innovation Award in the category of Distributed Storage Project at the organization’s 2016 Innovation and Champion Awards held in San Diego.
As the only Canadian-based company to have a project nominated for an award that in previous years has been presented to international organizations such as Wal-Mart, BMW and Solar City, PowerStream was recognized for its innovative integration of energy storage into the grid and positive impact on the energy storage industry.
POWER.HOUSE was also the only electric utility project to receive a nomination. The final selection was based on the results of an online public vote in combination with a poll conducted among the ESNA advisory board.
Neetika Sathe, Vice President of Corporate Development at PowerStream, was also recognized by ESNA with the 2016 Champion Award for her leadership and exceptional achievement in advancing energy storage technology.