Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

As part of a comprehensive plan to make Canada a front-runner in clean energy exploitation, the FederalGovernment is accelerating its plan to phase out coal-powered electricity generation by 2030. Coal-fired powerplants produce a considerable portion of the electricity in Canada, and hence eliminating them posesunprecedented challenges to reliable planning and operation for electric utilities. The situation is furtheraggravated by the fact that electric utilities are aiming to increase the penetration of intermittent and variablerenewable energy sources such as wind power in their systems. To address the aforementioned issues,integrated energy systems, which consider the interactions among different types of energy demand, theelectricity network, and the gas network, have been recently proposed. Integrated energy systems exploit theinterdependency of different energy networks so as to ensure the reliable operation of those networks. In thisregard, this project aims to develop comprehensive planning and operation approaches for integrated energysystems in the presence of high renewable energy penetration, which is still in its infancy.Novel research outcomes of this project will include accurate models of system components, such as energyconverters, and new approaches and simulation tools for planning, operation, and reliability measures ofintegrated energy systems. The research results will provide significant technological inputs and referencesrelated to the design of integrated energy systems that will allow power and energy utilities to make moreviable investments in the future. These works will help Canada to achieve a safe, reliable, and sustainablepower supply while continuously adapting to increasing power generation from renewable energy sources. Thisresearch project will help Canada train highly qualified personnel, specifically power engineering graduateswho will be well-equipped with skill sets relevant to advanced power and energy systems.