• ENBALA aggregates process flexibility from large consumers to provide second-by-second demand management for load smoothing, allowing generators to operate their units more efficiently. Currently it has about half of a 4 MW contract under management, in a contract with the IESO.
• Temporal Power has a flywheel adding 10 MW of storage to a windfarm on a transmission line, allowing regulation of that line for voltage. Hydro One is a partner in the project. It also has a 2MW contract with the IESO for ancillary services (see “How the IESO and OPA framed the 50 MW of services,” part of this feature).
• eCamion uses Lithium-ion provides storage for a cluster of houses on a distribution line, helping to manage load variation in a pilot project that will be important once electric vehicles start hooking up. Toronto Hydro, with eCAMION, has a community energy storage system at a community centre in North York, that can provide 250 kWh / 500 kW of electricity.
• Hydrogenics, in its “Power-to-Gas” program, is working with Enbridge on a pilot to generate hydrogen by electrolysis, using off-peak surplus capacity, and inject it into Enbridge’s gas lines. The company already has a number of units in Europe. Natural gas pipelines can safely accommodate up to 10 – 15% of hydrogen without becoming brittle. Germany is planning a 40 MW unit. Hydrogenics is planning a 2MW unit in Ontario.
• Hydrostor is working with Toronto Hydro in placing a number of commercially available compressed-air bladders, commonly used to refloat sunken vessels for salvage, off the Toronto islands, to store compressed air, using water pressure on Lake Ontario’s lakebed, to store several hours worth of power storage to bolster supply for Toronto. Another project is planned for the Caribbean.
• Electrovaya Inc. has a contract signed in August 2011 to provide a lithium ion Battery Energy Storage System (“BESS”) of approximately 1.2MWh
• Hydrogenics will be using surplus power from the grid to generate hydrogen by electrolysis, and injecting it into the natural gas mains. Another facility is under development in Denmark.
• The Centre for Urban Energy at Ryerson University has been testing and developing several storage technologies, including a large-scale bank of lithium-ion polymer batteries (with Toronto Hydro, Hydro One and Electrovaya), flywheels (with Temporal Power), and thermal storage, using ice for cooling on campus.See “Ryerson research supports storage tech,” IPPSO FACTO, August 2012).
• Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. (RES Canada) is providing battery-based storage through the IESO’s 2012 Alternate Technologies for Regulation RFP.
• Northland Power is developing a 400MW pumped bulk storage project at an abandoned open-pit mine in northeastern Ontario (see “Northland’s Marmora,” page 26.