Nemiah Valley Renewable Microgrid

Lead Proponent

Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government

Project Objectives

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the use of innovative controls integrated with solar photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage to utilize local resources to produce energy for Xeni Gwet’in First Nation members. This will decrease the Nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, while providing economic opportunities.

The Xeni Gwet’in First Nation is an off-grid community of 256 residents located in the Nemiah Valley, British Columbia. There are three distinct communities within the First Nation. The Central community meets its energy needs using three 95-kilowatt (kW) diesel generators, serving 40 homes and 7 commercial buildings. The East community consists of 8 homes, too remote to economically connect to the microgrid, so have been equipped with individual PV/propane hybrid systems. The West community consists of 27 homes, 5 of which are powered by older PV/propane hybrid systems, with the remaining 22 being powered by individual propane and diesel generators.

The project will demonstrate the integration of 250 kW of PV and 1 Megawatt hour of lithium ion energy storage with the three 95 kW diesel gensets to support two banks of load each from the Central and West communities.

Expected Results

This project has the potential for replication of small-scale PV-energy storage systems integrated onto diesel microgrids to reduce diesel use and energy costs for remote communities, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In the long-term, the community will develop a holistic demand management plan to consider building upon traditional, sustainable uses of local resources in conjunction with advanced energy efficient technologies.

November 2022: The Xeni Gwet’in First Nations Government was able to turn on their renewable microgrid. The project has monitoring and optimization planned for the next few years to ensure maximum benefit from the system. The First Nation’s central (IR#3) community and the West End community are connected to the PV micro-grid system.