Ontario’s weather is changing, and we are suffering through more frequent serious weather events and dealing with less resilience in our electricity grid. Every community in Ontario must have a list of disaster recovery centres where citizens can shelter in the case of an emergency.
OREC proposes that these centres be set up as facilities that generate and store electricity on a continual basis and provide on site power in the case of emergencies. This would provide income for the facility and help to balance the local grid. When disasters and outages occur the system would revert to an electricity island needed to provide food & shelter, cooling, and phone and EV charging.
The solution is straightforward:
Critical infrastructure and/or disaster recovery facilities would be equipped with renewable generation facilities and be able to export this generation at a rate that can provide a reasonable return;
The facilities would be allowed to install generation to the maximum level possible at their site and not be restricted to 12-month net-metering credit rules;
These facilities could include sewage treatment facilities, arenas, swimming pools,
community centres, churches, and schools, using their roofs, facia, parking-canopies, or grounds for the most suitable generation system;
The facility would host onsite battery electric storage system (BESS) that can time shift the generation and arbitrage high and low rates to balance the grid on an ongoing basis. The BESS would not be charged ‘demand charges’ as it would be providing a grid service; and
Financing should come from local social enterprises or community energy cooperatives that offer investment opportunities to the local community. Local emergency preparedness budgets should include lease payments for these assets.
The energy generation could be set up in one of two forms.
‘Behind the Meter’ at the facility with unlimited export allowances, while continually recharging a local community scale battery to provide local grid balancing services. At the time of a crisis the battery and generation system would ‘island’ the facility from the grid and service the community disaster needs.
The generation and battery system could be set up ‘in Front of the Meter’ feeding all the energy into the grid and using the battery to arbitrage power. Then at the time of a crisis, the entire system could automatically be switched to service the disaster recovery site.
Ontario needs strong emergency preparedness. We need facilities to be ready for electricity supply challenges wherever they are in the province. For example, Eastern Ontario is far from the centralized power generation facilities at Bruce, Darlington and Pickering; transmission and distribution lines are very long and susceptible to derecho’s, tornadoes, ice/snowstorms and floods; as has happened many times over the last 20 years.
Establishing emergency recovery sites as energy generation/balancing hubs would provide a new level of emergency preparedness while enhancing the local grid. The generation and BESS could be financed with local capital. This would directly improve the operational efficiency of the grid, as well as improving the confidence of the public in our security. Allowing these facilities to the be community owned would enhance the public understanding and interest in these resiliency centres.
Local residents would have a natural interest in the resilience of such a community resource and would be inclined to invest in such a facility if it the business terms provided a reasonable return on investment. The facility itself would also enjoy savings on its power bill.
Dick Bakker Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative (OREC) December 2024
Kommentare