The provincial Ministry of Transportation announced in February that it is partnering with Toronto Hydro to build an energy storage system to provide back-up power to Toronto’s Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit (LRT) line, currently under construction.
The battery energy storage facility will be located at the site of the future Mount Dennis Station and LRT maintenance and storage facility. It will store energy generated at night during off-peak hours and supply up to four hours of energy the following day to reduce peak energy use. It will also lower the Crosstown’s overall emissions and operating costs. In addition, the facility will provide emergency power to the Crosstown in the event of a power interruption.
Renewable Energy Systems Canada will build the system.
Initial plans had been for a gas-fired power plant. Responding to concerns of local residents, at a news conference last March Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca and York-South Weston Liberal MPP Laura Albanese announced that Metrolinx would build the battery-based system instead.
The 19-kilometre Eglinton Crosstown LRT will include 25 stations and stops that will link to 54 bus routes, three subway stations, three GO Transit lines and the UP Express. The line will be completed by 2021, connecting Mount Dennis in the west with Kennedy Station in the east, with a 10-kilometre underground portion between Keele Street and Laird Drive.
See also, “Metrolinx chooses battery storage system over gas,” IPPSO FACTO, June 2017.