Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

Blackstone Energy Services Inc. (Blackstone) is working with Natural Resources Canada's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Demonstration program (EVID) on demonstration projects that integrate Blackstone's electricity market demand response notification system (the "Peak Predictor Service" or "PPS") to its BlackPAC Enterprise energy management platform. BlackPAC will direct bi-directional inverters (Bi-Dis) - electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that can both charge an EV's battery and also discharge that battery - to send power back to the site transformer in order to reduce the amount of electricity consumed from the local electrical grid. This concept of the EV acting as a local power generator is called Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). As part of their EVID program, Blackstone is developing a mobile application (app) to notify EV drivers of demand response events. are to test Blackstone's mobile app to incentivize, track, and manage third-party EV drivers' engagement with Blackstone's V2G capabilities and to quantify EV drivers' contributions to the electrical grid as a way to optimize peak shaving events and capture financial savings. This pilot study will test the ability of Blackstone's mobile app to incentivize EV drivers and quantify their contribution to the local electrical grid. Blackstone has three client locations lined up to participate in this pilot project, with Georgian College serving as another site. The project addresses the current high economic penalty incurred when a commercial or industrial customer draws power from the grid during peak hours. This project will assist Blackstone to determine the incentives required by EV users to provide that temporary peak power requirement so that facility operators are relieved of high electricity costs. This project will engage up to three students/ new graduates from Georgian College's Electrical Engineering Technology, Research Analyst, and Big Data Analytics programs.