Brookfield to get in 161MW/644MWh battery project in Ontario IESO tender

• A subsidiary of Canadian renewable resource investor Brookfield Renewable has actually suggested a 161MW/644MWh battery storage system to complete in an Ontario grid operator Request for Proposals (RfP).

Evolugen, a programmer as well as power asset owner entirely possessed by Brookfield, offered its plan for Timberwolf, a battery power storage system (BESS) to be built near the city of Sault Ste Marie, to the city's council on Monday (11 July).

The lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery storage space project would occupy 10 acres of land co-located with Evolugen's existing 189MW Prince Wind power plant, about 15km outside Sault Ste Marie. Development, construction as well as commissioning would stand for around CA$ 300 million (US$ 230.5 million) complete investment.

It would increase the supply and also reliability of electricity from the grid in the Sault Ste Marie location while creating regional job opportunities as well as providing internal financial investment at a time of post-pandemic economic recovery, the firm asserted.

Evolugen VP of trading as well as marketing Simon Laroche kept in mind that the recommended project will just go on if it is successful in the Long-Term Request for Proposals (LT RFP) being released by the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

IESO is seeking 1,000 MW of new capacity to come online between 2025 and also 2027. The district is facing the retirement of Pickering, a nuclear reactor, and also prepared outages for various other nuclear facilities.

Together with anticipated power demand growth, this implies the IESO is anticipating to see a shortfall in electricity of in between 4,000 MW as well as 6,000 MW by 2030 if absolutely nothing is done. As kept in mind in a March entry on the blog site of consultancy group Power Advisory, the system operator expects the demand for capacity additions will certainly begin to bite by 2025.

Evolugen's Laroche noted that the project would therefore go to really limited and brief timelines. Power Advisory kept in mind back in March that the expedited RFP enabled so little time that it made the building of new generation assets not likely within the earlier part of the window. Battery storage, which can be built much quicker nonetheless, would likely play a significant duty, the group claimed.

Timberwolf would be one of the larger projects built in Canada, which has mostly to date lagged behind its southern neighbor in battery storage rollout. Ontario has actually seen a relatively large rollout of behind-the-meter storage space at large industrial facilities which decrease their electricity prices via height shaving, but grid-scale storage space development has been restricted. One more province, Alberta, is beginning to see development of renewables-plus-storage particularly with a handful of high profile projects yet is still at an onset.

Evolugen claimed it needed the assistance of the regional community council as well as to demonstrate community consultations had occurred for eligibility to go into IESO contracts. Laroche claimed comments at community engagement sessions had actually been excellent thus far.

The only inquiry asked by the council about the project was for more talk about the community engagement sessions. Evolugen VP for federal government and also external relations Remi Moreau acknowledged that while there hadn't been many individuals present, the firm got responses from 6 attendees. Each of those had actually had an interest in functioning straight on, or acquiring to collaborate with Evolugen, on the project, Moreau stated.

The council with one voice regulationed in favour of the Timberwolf project, removing a significant obstacle for the developer.

Evolugen's parent company is coming to be a major player in international fixed battery storage markets. An affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Renewable tripled its United States development pipe throughout all sustainable technologies when it bought out developer Urban Grid, acquiring 13GW of utility-scale solar PV and 7GW of battery storage projects in the process.

A few days after sis site PV Tech reported the US$ 650 million Urban Grid procurement in February, Brookfield Renewable introduced its initial foray into the UK's battery storage space market, targeting 985MW of opportunities with developer Cambridge Power.