Enel has become the latest big name to spy opportunities in the commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage space in Ontario, Canada, signing an agreement this week for its first project in the region.
Due to come online in the first half of this year, Enel X, Enel’s advanced energy services division, through its acquired US subsidiary EnerNOC Inc, has done a deal with an apple orchard group, Algoma Orchards of Ontario, Canada, to install a 1MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system at the latter’s facilities.
Under an 11-year agreement, EnerNOC will continue to operate the behind-the-meter system and will reap financial benefits on two fronts: firstly from reducing the apple producer’s peak demand from the grid, as is common in such installations, and also by using the battery to participate in Ontario’s regional demand response programme.
Back in 2016, Energy-Storage.News reported from talks with the trade group Energy Storage Ontario (now known as Energy Storage Canada) that the clean energy industry credited the province’s regulators and policymakers for sticking to a “clean, reliable and affordable” remit when it came to grid and energy infrastructure planning.
This has lead not only to support for front-of-meter, grid-scale energy storage deployed directly to benefit the grid, but also created the likes of the Global Adjustment Charge, by which grid upgrades, decarbonisation and modernisation of the network are partly paid for by charging business electricity ratepayers’ peak demand costs. In its release yesterday Enel said the 1MWh Algoma Orchards battery would indeed benefit from financial savings under that policy.
A report from the Fraser Institute found that electricity costs for large businesses in Toronto and Ottawa, both cities in Ontario, rose by around 50% in each between 2010 and 2016, compared to an average of 14% for other cities in Canada. However, hourly energy costs have steadily declined almost five times over in that period.
Recent Comments