Storage: Growing Reliability
Renewable sources of energy like wind and solar have a big part to play in making energy cleaner. We are advancing plans to use storage technology in all of our electric companies so we can capture and keep intermittent renewable energy until it’s needed by customers.
Integrating storage large and small in Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia, we are integrating energy storage solutions of varying sizes so we can better understand how to connect customer-owned batteries to the energy grid. In late 2016, our team at Nova Scotia Power announced an Intelligent Feeder project – the first pilot in Emera’s history of a completely integrated intelligent grid, including renewable generation, energy storage and data systems. The pilot will include a large-scale Tesla Powerpack battery and up to 10 Powerwalls in the homes of customers, all powered by wind or other clean energy sources. We will use sensors to gather information about how all the components are working together in real time, helping us understand how to manage and scale up these complex systems in the future.
Capturing Barbados solar
When Barbados Light & Power completed the 10 MW St. Lucy solar facility in 2016, Barbados came one step closer to being 100 per cent powered by clean electricity by 2045. Now our team in Barbados is working with Tesla to integrate a 5-MW, 20-MWh Powerpack battery system that will capture the energy from St. Lucy and make it available anytime. The project will improve reliability for customers and provide an estimated saving of $1 to $2 million BBD per year, meaning that the costs of the storage system would be more than offset by fuel savings.
