The post ‘Smart Microgrid Community’ Takes Shape in Canada appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Many areas across the globe are looking providing non-traditional power to residential neighborhoods, part of a push to make a community’s electricity supply more reliable and resilient. A development in Canada is one model of what is known as a “smart microgrid community.”

Elexicon Energy, the fourth largest municipally-owned electricity distributor in Ontario, along with real estate developer and builder Marshall Homes, and Canada’s Opus One Solutions, a global cleantech company, have partnered to create a “living smart grid” pilot community called Altona Towns. The project is supported by Ontario’s Ministry of Energy, Northern Development, under the Smart Grid and Grid Innovation funds.

The partners in May announced the project as the first planned nested microgrid installation in Canada that will integrate a full-scale, operational smart residential energy system. Altona Towns will “test, develop and launch the next generation of technologies that can turn electricity distribution systems into modern, digitally enabled grids,” according to the partners, who said the project could provide a blueprint for using microgrids to power thousands of homes.  …

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