Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Energy+ is the Local Distribution Company (LDC) that serves 68,000 customers in Cambridge, Brantford and surrounding areas. They are responsible for the reliability and service quality of the electrical distributionsystem that includes complex planning and operations of their electrical infrastructure, coordination of theirProtection and Control (P&C) equipment and schemes, and more recently, Distributed Generation (DG) assets (e.g., solar, wind, energy storage) in different areas of the distribution system. DG is a step forward towards a more sustainable, greener system/economy at Energy+ and across Canada. The increasing demand for DGs intothe system creates operational and economic challenges for Energy+ and their clients. Energy+ and Mohawk College's Energy and Power Innovation Centre (EPIC) will partner to develop an investigatory environment to study DG integration challenges and its impact on the P&C requirements. Using the results of the study,Energy+ can then adjust their current interconnection plan or confirm that they are using the best method for their customers. Mohawk College has the expertise to build the testing environment and will provide theequipment and facilities, including a decommissioned electrical substation. Together, Energy+ and EPIC will identify known issues with DG interconnection and provide potential solutions. This will help address theseissues and work to improve the interconnection process, which will reduce DG development and integration time and costs for Energy+ and their customers.