Grant: College and Community Innovation Program

A report by Natural Resources Canada indicates that the Canadian government will invest $1.48 billion to increase Canada's supply of clean energy from renewable sources such as wind, biomass, low-impact hydro, geothermal, solar photovoltaic and ocean energy. These initiatives can be implemented with distributed generation; however, the integration of distributed generators and existing power grids typically results in several complex technical, economic and regulatory challenges that need to be addressed. To ensure a safe and reliable power system, exhaustive designs and extensive tests are crucial for distributed generators, equipment manufacturers and utility distribution networks. The Mohawk College Applied Research Centre in Energy Technology (MARC-ET) proposes to build a physical, comprehensive Microgrid system in a test environment. The test environment will include power generation, distribution, protection protocols and Intelligent Energy Systems Management (IESM). Researchers will examine the impacts of distributed generation and electric vehicle charging stations as they relate to Microgrid harmonics content, cable selection, protection and control reliability, and system stability. The Intelligent Energy Systems Management platform will be based on the integration of software and network protocols, and will provide the Microgrid with monitoring and control functions. The proposed projects make vital contributions to innovation, technology transfer and commercialization for local and provincial partners, such as local distribution companies (LCDs), power utilities, municipal organizations and small to medium-sized enterprises.