Big Thinking for a Small Community: A Remote Battery Energy Storage Solution

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

Peter Brodsky

Public Affairs Manager, FortisAlberta

A traditional wires and poles distribution company may not be the first place you think of when you think about accelerating the future of the electricity grid, but at FortisAlberta, we invest talent and resources in solutions that not only meet our customers’ needs but reflect our focus on sustainable solutions.

Recently, FortisAlberta was faced with a new challenge. To improve the dependable delivery of power to a community located in a national park, surrounded by a treasured old growth forest, in a townsite of no more than 150 year-round residents, who host as many as 400,000 visitors each year in the summer months.

The solution was to energize our first battery energy storage system to provide backup electricity in Waterton Lakes National Park, thereby improving the reliability of the local power supply, with minimal impact to the area’s sensitive environment.

Prior to this installation, a single 70-kilometre-long distribution line connected Waterton Lakes National Park to the grid. The Waterton townsite experiences more frequent and longer outages than many other locations in FortisAlberta’s service territory because the area is windy and heavily treed. Building a second distribution line to serve the community would have required the removal of mature trees, and disturbing sensitive wildlife habitat.

This energy storage project showcases the technical, economic, environmental, and social benefits of a battery energy storage system, solar photovoltaic renewable generation, and advanced distribution control systems. It will maintain power during an outage while the distribution line is being repaired, providing a reliable alternative source of electrical power for the Waterton townsite and the Parks Canada compound.

“We’ve created a microgrid that will seamlessly transfer between grid and battery supply during most system disturbances so there is no service disruption to the Waterton townsite,” says Kevin Noble, Director of Engineering at FortisAlberta. “Now that we have tested and proven the feasibility of this technology in Waterton, we are positioned to provide similar solutions to our customers in other remote communities,” adds Janine Sullivan, President and CEO of FortisAlberta.

The $5.1 million project was funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Smart Grid Program, Alberta Innovates, Emissions Reduction Alberta, Opus One Solutions and FortisAlberta.

Located in the Parks Canada operations compound, the battery and control systems are owned and operated by FortisAlberta. Solar panels located in the same compound, that form part of the microgrid, are owned and operated by Parks Canada. The combined installation will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%.