Heating up buildings in the winter, cranking up the air conditioner in the summer and lighting up our work places are routine events in our daily rhythm, but what would happen if the energy powering these activities was not there when you needed it? UBC operations and ECE faculty together with the industry partners Alpha Technologies and Corvus Energy are grappling with the need for affordable, sustainable energy.
A key component of the power grid of the future is the ability to store energy from intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar power, to be used at a later time. To this end, the Electrochemical Storage System (ESS) project provides 1000 kWh of distributed energy storage in the form of Lithium Ion batteries. This battery network and management system replaces the need for diesel back-up generators in three locations at UBC. It also provides enough reserve power to demonstrate peak demand off-set (peak-shaving) and to improve the power quality needed for sensitive research equipment.
The distributed energy test bed contributes directly to UBC’s 2050 zero greenhouse gas emissions by replacing the need for regular diesel generator testing in the three locations. It provides ECE researchers the opportunity to partner with Alpha Technology in developing the next generation of battery management networks and to explore with Corvus Energy power storage systems. The new discoveries generated from this project will form the vanguard of new solutions to the energy grid at UBC and beyond.
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