Autonomous microgrids with storage: the experience of Quaqtaq, a unit community in northern Quebec, Canada

 

Energy storage for a world with renewable energy

In an autonomous microgrid, energy storage systems feed off the excess energy produced by wind and solar power, saving it for times of low production.

For decades, hydropower has been the world's leading method of energy storage. At present, lithium-ion batteries are one of the main energy storage solutions. They can run on a grid scale, like hydropower, or power smaller energy demands, like those of businesses, homes, and electric vehicles.

In Quaqtaq, a remote Inuit community in northern Quebec, EVLO Energy Storage Inc., a subsidiary of provincial renewable energy producer Hydro-Québec, installed an energy storage system to help the community integrate solar power.

"When the distribution network goes down due to a planned or unplanned event, the microgrid that we have there will be self-sustaining and will provide continuity of electricity." This is how Adile Ajaja, head of the EVLO technical team, expresses it.

EVLO has developed a better type of lithium-ion battery: lithium iron phosphate batteries. Unlike traditional lithium-ion batteries, the lithium iron phosphate variety is made from non-toxic materials.

Hydro-Québec has been developing the technology of EVLO systems for 40 years. Its smaller systems can power commercial buildings, while its larger, more rugged units can power grids and industrial sites. The lithium iron phosphate battery is one of the most efficient on the market today. Unlike other types of batteries, it has a 100% depth of discharge, which means users can access all of the energy stored in the battery.

In the city of Lac-Mégantic, the company has recently installed an energy storage system to serve a neighborhood microgrid, this being the first microgrid in Quebec. This initiative seeks to increase the resistance of the local power grid.

To do this, they installed a system that stores the energy of 1,700 solar panels and provides service to 40 buildings in the city center and electric vehicle charging stations.

The microgrid and energy storage systems also provide a source of power in case the main grid goes out. “When the distribution network is interrupted by a planned or unplanned event, the microgrid that we have there will be self-sufficient and will provide continuity of electricity,” Ajaja says.

Lubio Lenin Cardozo,  engineer installation of photovoltaic systems