Kansas engineering company Black & Veatch is to design and build an electric smart grid in Ontario for local utility PUC. The aim is to cut consumer energy costs, lower emissions and bolster grid resilience and reliability.

As the electric industry addresses growing demands for lower carbon footprints and heightened reliability and resilience, a Canadian community is entrusting Black & Veatch to transform its power system into a technology-driven, enhanced smart grid meant to lower consumer costs and slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Billed as the first such community-wide utility effort in Canada, the Sault Smart Grid project for PUC Distribution – the local electricity distribution utility in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario – includes Black & Veatch designing and deploying a network with technologies that enhance reliability and efficiency, improve outage management, and reduce energy consumption.

That more intuitive grid, expected to be completed by late 2022, positions PUC to accommodate distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, battery storage, co-generation and electric vehicles while supporting smart city and other community growth initiatives.

Once operational, the smart grid will offer two key components – voltage optimisation and distribution automation. Voltage optimisation constantly regulates a consumer’s electricity supply and gives them precisely the voltage they need, saving energy and lowering electric bills. Distribution automation essentially embeds intelligence into the system, using a network of sensors and controls that improve reliability, flexibility and agility. Those features enable the system’s self-healing during power disruptions, reducing the size of the outage and the number of affected users.

“As the energy sector evolves, with broader investments in decarbonation, reliability and resiliency, this comprehensive smart grid initiative represents the promise of lowering generation and distribution costs while propelling the community’s modernisation,” said Gary Johnson, Black & Veatch’s regional director. “Sault Ste Marie is leading the charge in Canada, and we’re confident other utilities, regions and communities will follow suit once they see the enormous benefits.”

PUC Distribution distributes electricity to residences and businesses within the boundaries of the city of Sault Ste Marie, the Batchewana First Nation (Rankin Reserve), Prince Township and parts of Dennis Township. The management, maintenance and operations of the distribution system is carried out by PUC Services.

“With expectations that we’ll see more demand for electric vehicle hook-ups, rooftop solar energy and other new technology in the next decade, the Sault Smart Grid project will help the city modernise and leap forward in meeting those challenges and opportunities,” said Kevin Bell, PUC’s vice-president. “We are excited about this project bringing our customers an energy system that is more reliable, resilient and responsive.”

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, it has addressed the resilience and reliability of infrastructure assets. Revenues in 2020 exceeded $3bn.