STORAGE SOLUTION


ENERGY
Two distinct Canadian footprints
Slated for a rural rather than residential area and certainly taking up
more than a driveway (but a lot less land than a solar installation),
majority owner Northland Power is currently in the advanced stage
of completing a 250 MW/1,000 MWh (one gigawatt) battery energy
storage facility in Jarvis, Ont.
The Oneida Energy Storage Project is Northland Power’s 昀椀rst investment in battery energy storage and is being developed in partnership with NRStor, the Six Nations of the Grand River Development
Corporation and Aecon and is tied to a 20-year 昀椀xed price contract
with Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).
As is the case with other energy storage projects, Michelle Chislett,
Northland Power’s executive vice president of onshore renewables,
says the Oneida site is all about contributing to grid resiliency and
helping to o昀昀set peak demand.
“In the middle of the summer, when our air conditioners are run-
ning, if there’s not enough energy on the system, we can dispatch
Oneida and frankly, any other battery on the system to start generating and it’ll have immediate impacts,” says Chislett. “But that’s
only half of the equation. The other half is when we have low energy
usage in the province and maybe we’ve got too much energy on
our grid, which again can cause instability. We can then turn on the
batteries and tell Oneida and all the other batteries to store energy.”
In contrast to power producers focussed solely on wind, solar or
storage, Northland Power has project experience in all of these areas
and not just in North America, but Asia, Europe and Latin America.
And yet to date, Chislett says none of the wind or solar installations
are co-located with battery storage.
“But it’s de昀椀nitely something that needs to be considered for
every project going forward,” Chislett opines. That isn’t to say they
won’t continue have standalone battery projects either as she says
the ultimate decision should come down to “where’s the best place
to put the battery for our system.”
Getting pumped for the future
Referencing her company as somewhat “technology agnostic,”
Chislett shares that their next proverbial 昀椀nger in the
energy pie is pumped storage. In partnership with Ontario
Power Generation, the proposed Marmora Clean Energy
Hub Project involves converting a former open-pit iron ore
mine into a 400 MW source of clean energy storage.
As explained by the International
Hydropower Association, pumped storage uses gravity to generate electricity.
Water is pumped from a lower reservoir (in this instance the 200-foot-deep
former mine pit) to an upper reservoir
at times of low demand. During peak
demand times, the water is released,
driving to turbine to feed electricity into
the grid.
“What we like about Marmora is it’s
an abandoned mine. So, turning it into a
pumped storage site is not just helping
the grid, it’s also helping to reclaim
a site that’s otherwise sitting there,
unusable [and] it’s a closed loop… that
just recirculates the same water… and
doesn’t take water from an outside
water source (such as a lake).”
A fundamental di昀昀erence between
the Marmora project and the project in
Meaford, Ont. that TC Energy Corporation is seeking to bring to fruition, is the
latter is designed to move water to and
from Georgian Bay.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of
Energy and the Ontario Energy Board
(OEB) and with prospective partner the
Saugeen Ojibway Nation, the Ontario
Pumped Storage initiative, if approved,
will feed 1,000 MW (one GW) into the
province’s grid.
Additional numbers surrounding this
initiative
cited on TC Energy’s webThe 250-MW Oneida Energy Storage Project, currently under construction, is being developed by a consortium that includes
site
and
a
dedicated Ontario Pumped
the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, Northland Power, NRStor, and Aecon Group.
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RENEW CANADA – MAY/JUNE 2024
RENEWCANADA.NET
AECON
the load ramps up when people come home from work.”
Yet another key di昀昀erentiator between solar power generation and
battery storage Bergland is quick to point out is the land required to
make each solution possible. “A megawatt of solar needs 昀椀ve to seven
acres of land whereas a megawatt of storage can probably 昀椀t in your
driveway. And because of energy storage’s footprint, it can be built
in an urban environment… next to industrial parks… existing power
infrastructure or substations quite easily.”
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