More than $3 million in funding has come through for the implementation of a large-scale electric heat pump and thermal storage facility at Confederation College. MPP Kevin Holland announced the Independent Electricity System Operator’s investment that comes through the Grid Innovation Fund.
The project involves several partners, including Powerconsumer Inc., experts in energy control systems who will build the interface between Synergy North and the college controls. It also involves Blackstone Energy Services, the energy consultants and constructors on the project. Blackstone worked with the college to develop the plan for the project and provide the software the school uses to monitor its energy systems.
The pilot project has been in the planning stage for almost three years between Confederation College and Synergy North and is a key component of Ontario’s Energy for Generations integrated energy plan, the province’s comprehensive strategy to modernize the electricity system and drive economic growth.
Karla Bailey, the vice president of system planning, asset management and engineering with Synergy North, said thermal storage will be used by Synergy North to help with peak demand on the electrical grid.
“It’s a huge step forward for innovation, especially in Northwestern Ontario,” Bailey said. “This hasn’t been done yet in the province, and we’re really hopeful to see the results from this and how that can be used with other institutions.”
Bailey added that the use of thermal storage to help the grid is the unique part of the project, and the college’s ability to drop its power load with the thermal storage is a low-carbon and sustainable process, rather than using carbon-emitting natural gas or diesel generation.
“The other special part about this is that, in Thunder Bay we are winter peaking. Our big loads happen in the winter when people are using their heat, and now the college can use this solution to help us in our winter peak, but also bid into the provincial market when there’s a provincial peak,” she said. “Southern Ontario typically peaks in the summer, where they have their highest load. So they can use it both ways, which is special.”
Bailey noted that the actual size of what the college is contributing is fairly small, but testing it out and proving that they are willing and they can use it at the right times will provide the opportunity to build more of them,” she said.
College president Michele Salo said the project is going to be really important for the city and is a proof of concept to show that this is possible to do within Thunder Bay.
“We already respond to the energy grid for Ontario, so this is actually responding to the city of Thunder Bay’s needs,” Salo said. “Energy is an important factor because we want to expand the city with the growth initiative, and we need energy to be able to manage that.”
The project is also tied into the school’s curriculum so the students can actually see the energy system live when they’re in their labs and classrooms.
“They can see our biomass boiler and all the energy coming in, whether it’s electricity or natural gas, and see our systems operating in real time,” said Salo.
“We want to make sure that our students are always connected in some way to our infrastructure in those fields where they’re going to be going and working in the future. Having access to real-life data is going to be really important to this project.”
She added that with all the sustainability efforts that the college has forwarded over the last several years, it further pushes its agenda forward in making the college more sustainable from an energy perspective, resulting in the school using less energy.
“It’s going to be a cost savings for the college over the long period of time,” she said. “It’s very important for both financial as well as environmental sustainability.”
The college has been busy upgrading its systems to be able to monitor, measure and track all of its energy sources in preparation for the construction component of installing additional equipment, which could take two years.
