Festival Hydro Battery Energy Storage Facility
Client
Hecate Engery
Region
London, ON
City
Stratford
Year Completed
2018
Size
13,000 sq. ft.
Sector
Industrial
Sub-Sector
Energy
The Story
The Festival Hydro Battery Storage Project (Energy Storage System) is contracted with the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) as part of IESO’s long-term energy plan to provide key ancillary services including reactive support, voltage control, and peaking power to the grid through energy storage technologies.
With a usable capacity of 40.8MWh, it is the largest utility connected battery energy storage project in Canada. It included 300 Powin Energy Stack140 systems housed inside a newly constructed, purpose-built warehouse and connected to inverters from Eaton. EllisDon broke ground on the building in mid-July, with work on the battery array beginning in late August. Final connection and commissioning was completed in February 2018.
Features
• The battery cell arrays provide a storage capacity of 8.8 MW/ 40.8MWH, which can supply more than 10,000 homes with electricity for 1 hour;
• Allows for flexible energy storage and draws at peak and non-peak times, as it stores energy in a similar manner to a cell-phone battery;
• Will relieve demand on Festival Hydro’s central generation system during peak hours; and
• Relies less on the central generating system allows for higher voltage stability.