Ontario's Veridian Connections has launched a test project that will make it among the first utility to use Tesla's Powerwall batteries in a microgrid installation.

The government-owned utility, which serves 119,000 Ontario customers east of Toronto, plans to install two prototype microgrids integrating 10 KwH of solar-generation capability with 7-KhW Powerwalls for storage - one at Veridian's headquarters in Ajax, Ont., and one at a nearby customer's residence. 

The two installations aren't expected to cost a lot, perhaps a total of 400,000 Canadian dollars, or about $275,000, and are expected to come online later this year.

"It may pay some of itself back but the main effort is to learn more about how these systems interact with our system, to try to design the right kind of system going forward in the future," said Veridian President and CEO Michael Angemeer.

The installations will provide power to Veridian's headquarters and to the household where the residential system is installed. They'll also each include electric vehicle charging stations, letting the company learn more about the interaction between the grid, the solar and storage systems and electric vehicle facilities, he said.

While the pilot residential system will be owned by Veridian, the company will look at other business model options, including joint ownership, should the project expand, Angemeer said.

Both installations will be managed using Opus One Solutions' GridOS smart grid management software, letting them be controlled and monitored from Veridian's headquarters, where customers will also be able to learn more about the project or charge their electric cars.

"The broader picture - and we're working on a variety of projects with Veridian as well as well as other utilities - is to be able to use this microgrid concept to essentially isolate a part of the grid," said Keyvan Cohanim, Opus One's chief commercial officer.

That could come in handy during outages or repairs, but during normal operations, the pilot microgrids will feed any excess generated power back into the larger grid, he said.

Opus One's already tested Tesla's Powerwall batteries in its lab and plans to be part of a venture distributing the batteries, which were first announced last spring by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. 

"It's an elegant industrial design - something that is innovative and approachable and aesthetically pleasing," Cohanim said of the batteries. "When you're talking about a new technology that you're introducing to consumers or residential homeowners, that is important."

Cohanim said the Veridian project is the first he's aware of to deploy the Tesla batteries in a commercial microgrid.

"We've talked to a number of utilities who are interested in this concept," he said.

At least one U.S. utility, Vermont's Green Mountain Power, has announced a program allowing consumers to buy or rent the batteries.

Its customers can purchase a Powerwall from GMP for about $6,500. Another option would provide customers with a monthly credit of $31.76 if they share access to the Powerwall with GMP.  A third option would give a customer shared access to a Powerwall for $37.50 per month.

The Veridian project will help the company's customers understand more about that kind of potential for the technology, Cohanim said.

"Their main focus right now is really to educate and help their customers understand where they are going from the technology standpoint," he said. "As part of the microgrid that is going to be available at their location, we actually are going to deploy it outdoors at their headquarters building so that is accessible for their customers to come and look and understand how it works."

Tesla's Powerwall comes in two models: 7 kWh and 10 kWh. Both systems target residential homeowners, to store extra solar electricity or for backup/electricity security. Tesla's utility-scale energy storage product is much bigger.

Questions about the economics of the Powerwall arose immediately upon its introduction. Tesla says that the payback is less than 10 years in regions with renewable-energy policies like feed-in tariffs.

Panasonic, which owns a stake in Tesla, recently announced it would invest up to $1.6 billion in Tesla's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, where the Powerwall as well as car batteries will be manufactured.

 

http://www.energybiz.com/article/16/01/ontario-utility-use-powerwall-microgrid-test