You are now in the main content area

Pole position: Novel energy storage project wins CEA Centre of Excellence award

By: Matthew Kerry
July 27, 2018

Photo: Joseph Howarth.

The Centre for Urban Energy’s pole-mounted energy storage project, a collaboration with Toronto Hydro, eCAMION and the Ontario Ministry of Energy, has been recognized by the Canadian Electricity Association (CEA) at a ceremony at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 29.

The project has been included (external link, opens in new window)  in the CEA’s new Centre of Excellence (external link, opens in new window) , which is dedicated to celebrating innovative projects from coast-to-coast-to-coast that are positively impacting the lives of Canadians and shaping the country’s collective energy future.

Gary Thompson, supervisor of engineering, generation and capacity planning at Toronto Hydro and one of the project’s leaders, picked up the award from Sergio Marchi, president and CEO of the CEA.

Left to right: Kim Rudd, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources; Sergio Marchi, President and CEO of CEA; Gary Thompson, Supervisor of Engineering, Generation and Capacity Planning at Toronto Hydro; Chrystine Tremblay, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada.

The energy storage system, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, stores energy during off-peak hours and releases power as needed. The unit’s smart controller was developed by Centre for Urban Energy researchers before being put into service on the Toronto Hydro network in August 2016 using eCAMION battery technology. The project was funded in part by Ontario’s Smart Grid Fund.

The project was originally originally unveiled by Glen Murray, former Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, in November 2015.

The pilot continues to run and, if successful, it could become a standard that’s rolled out with all new installations on the over 175,000 poles across the city. To learn more about the project, check out the video below. 

"The energy storage system, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, stores energy during off-peak hours and releases power as needed. The unit’s smart controller was developed by Centre for Urban Energy researchers before being put into service on the Toronto Hydro network in August 2016 using eCAMION battery technology. The project was funded in part by Ontario’s Smart Grid Fund."