The Battery Challenge: Why Ontario’s Best Idea for Local Energy Is Still Looking for a Home.

A community-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) could provide virtually every Ontario community with safe, clean energy, while reducing the likelihood and severity of power blackouts.

At OREC, our history is built on getting things done: we've been installing rooftop and ground-level solar that powers schools, museums, and community centres around Ottawa and beyond for over a decade.

But we've never been satisfied with the status quo. We've always looked for innovative ways to serve our members and strengthen Ontario’s energy future. Following our investments in wind turbines and building retrofits, our latest initiative also goes beyond solar: a proposed community-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). We believe this project is the key to a cleaner, more resilient electricity grid in communities across the province.

Why We Need Storage

The problem is simple: every electricity system is built to meet peak demand—those few hours each year when everyone fires up their AC and devices at once. The rest of the time—roughly 95% of the year—Ontario has more power capacity than it needs.

Storage is the missing link. A battery lets the grid handle more demand with the same generation by acting as a giant sponge. It soaks up cheap, surplus power when it’s abundant (often overnight) and sends it back out during those expensive, high-demand summer afternoons.

Storage time-shifting doesn't just improve grid resilience; it cuts carbon emissions and lowers costs for consumers and utilities alike.

EVLO is a fully integrated battery energy storage system (BESS) provider and wholly owned subsidiary of Hydro-Québec.

The Power of Community Scale

We aren't talking about giant provincial storage farms that span hectares, nor are we talking about garage-sized residential batteries.

OREC’s vision is for something in between: a community-scale BESS, about the size of a large driveway, connected directly into the local distribution grid, not the high-voltage transmission lines.

This design keeps the benefits local and ensures they are felt immediately. It boosts resiliency for the surrounding neighborhood and avoids costly provincial grid upgrades. Crucially, in keeping with the OREC model, the profits from this local energy resource flow back to OREC members, not distant multinationals.

A microgrid pilot project underway near Pickering, Altona Towns, will demonstrate the kind of community-scale battery system paired with rooftop solar that OREC would like to bring to Ontario communities.

The Untapped Value: Financial and Environmental

Let's look at the numbers, because this isn't just a feel-good project—it's a smart one.

For an estimated $2 million capital cost for a single container, this battery is projected to generate roughly $256,000 in net revenue annually just by selling stored power back to the grid during peak times. That's a payback of under 10 years.

Even better, the environmental case is irrefutable. By time-shifting energy away from high-demand hours—when the province fires up its dirtiest natural gas plants—this BESS would avoid about 300 tonnes of carbon emissions annually (that’s 822 kg per day). The cleaner power is there; we just need the battery to move it.

Excerpt of the Business Case from OREC's pilot project proposal to the OEB, IESO, and Hydro Ottawa

The Roadblock: "Good Luck"

Each time we presented this proposal, whether to the Ministry of Energy, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), and Ontario's energy operator, the IESO, the response was always positive: it's a great idea. Unfortunately, that’s where the formal support stopped.

All three agencies recognized the project's ability to strengthen local grids, reduce emissions, and offer real economic value, but their parting message was simple: “Good luck!”

Our biggest hurdle is finding a host utility because Ontario’s regulatory framework is fundamentally outdated. Our system still only recognizes energy players as either "producers" or "consumers"—and a battery is both. The rules simply haven’t figured out how to include a community-scale asset like ours.

We’ve talked to industrial partners, but their interest is narrow. They only want the battery to reduce their own bills during the province’s five peak hours a year, leaving it dormant for the remaining 8,755 hours. That saves the business money, but it doesn’t strengthen community resilience or reduce Ontario’s carbon emissions—and those are the outcomes OREC members expect.

What’s Next?

We’re still searching for the right community and utility partnership—one that shares our belief that local energy storage delivers cleaner, more reliable, and more equitable power, and is willing to work with us make it happen (are you listening Hydro Ottawa?).

Through the OEB’s Innovation Sandbox, OREC is working to demonstrate that a community-owned BESS can succeed where large, centralized models cannot: by empowering municipalities to manage their own energy future and reinvesting the economic benefits locally.

It’s not an easy road—innovation rarely is. But OREC’s history shows we don’t wait for perfect conditions to act. We build the future one project, one partnership, and one community at a time.