Optimizing the Electricity Production

Balancing electricity generation and demand has undergone significant changes following the integration of a high penetration of renewable energy, fluctuating, on the network. Like long-term resource planning, short-term operational balancing problems present a number of challenges to those in the industry. With the smart grid, load control inside buildings will be used to optimize the electricity generation fleet.

In some markets, decentralized energy and demand management technology are being relied on more and more to respond to this need and the use of available resources on distribution networks is being tested to increase the offer of balancing services.

A number of demand reduction programs that use on-site emergency generators, intelligent thermostats or bienergy systems are already in place in Canada. Tests are ongoing in several regions to allow plug-in electric cars to participate in the real-time balancing of the production. With the development of smart grid technology and the improvement of electricity markets, it will be possible for these distributed resources to reduce congestion, but also to balance intermittence of electricity production with renewable energy.

The research carried out at CanmetENERGY is aimed at addressing the problems related to the use of distributed resources to reduce grid power demand, for short-term or long-term needs. Studies and demonstration projects carried out in this area follow:

• Integration of storage in electrical distribution systems and its impact on the depth of penetration of distributed generation
• Integration of wind generation with power systems in Canada: Overview of technical and economic impacts

To learn more about this issue, see the Publications section.

Managed by CanmetENERGY at the Varennes (Quebec) research centre.