Secondary School Carbon Free Embedded MicroGrid Energy System Demonstration

Lead Proponent

Ameresco Canada Inc.

Project Objectives

The primary objective of this project is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions related to the energy required to heat, cool and provide electricity to a John Paul II Secondary school (JPII) to near zero on an annual basis.

JPII is a two-story building with a gross area of 12,558 m2. Currently it is fully air-conditioned and uses unitary heat pump technology combined with a natural gas-fired hot water boiler plant to maintain space conditions.

An embedded carbon free microgrid energy system will be installed featuring both real time grid islanding and ancillary local distribution company (LDC) and transmission grid support capability. On-site electrical energy generation will be provided by an 804kWDC solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop and carport array which will be firmed and supported by a 1.1 MW Power – 2MWh Energy electrical energy storage system. Load management of the school will be migrated to an integrated building control system featuring automated load shedding capability for certain selected large energy consumption loads such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.

Expected Results

The total project will provide energy resilience, the elimination of all on-site natural gas usage (except what is used for cooking and class lab work), a reduction of current overall energy use, and a demonstration of how Solar PV can provide firm, high quality, power and energy for most of the high school’s energy requirements.

The project will develop expertise in the field of microgrids and predictive load control algorithms that can be shared across Canada. This will position Canada as a leader in new clean technologies, and identify new opportunities that will improve the quality, affordability, and security of the electrical energy available to Canadians.

Finally, the project will demonstrate how to reduce energy consumption through demand management, integration and aggregation of decentralized resources, and, demonstrate new ‘energy-as-a-service’ business model to de-risk extensive energy transition projects for both public and private entities.