Canadian utility Nova Scotia Power is using technology from California-based Sunverge to optimise consumer and grid services.

The aim is to provide grid services based on day-ahead and intra-day generation planning, including peak demand reduction and load levelling, generation contingency support, distribution feeder congestion management, and renewables smoothing, while offering consumer services including energy arbitrage, PV self-consumption and backup power capabilities.

Following a competitive bid process, Sunverge, the provider of a distributed energy resource (DER) control, orchestration and aggregation platform, was selected by Nova Scotia Power, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the Smart Grid Atlantic Pilot project.

This provides residential behind-the-meter virtual power plant technologies that include Sunverge’s real-time DER control, orchestration and aggregation platform combined with LG Electronics residential energy storage systems.

“We are excited to be selected for this ground-breaking and highly innovative project and to have the opportunity to work closely with Nova Scotia Power to demonstrate the value of residential battery systems for their customers and to the electric grid,” said Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge. “We are confident that Sunverge’s advanced platform will demonstrate the value of aggregating residential behind-the-meter storage systems for the Nova Scotia electricity grid and participating customers. The combination of real-time dynamic load flexibility and grid services is a powerful tool for managing the grid of the future and integrating the growth of distributed energy resources.”

The Sunverge platform will be used by Nova Scotia Power to explore opportunities to optimise both consumer and grid services. Grid services, based on day-ahead and intra-day generation planning, include peak demand reduction and load levelling, generation contingency support, distribution feeder congestion management, and renewables smoothing.

Consumer services include energy arbitrage, PV self-consumption and backup power to critical loads during grid outages.

These value streams should provide additional grid reliability and resiliency benefitting Nova Scotia Power’s entire service area.

Sunverge Energy provides an open dynamic platform for virtual power plants, a grid-aware and dynamic power source built from the aggregation of behind-the-meter DERs. The real-time DER control and aggregation platform provides dynamic optimisation of services on both sides of the meter, helping consumers with intelligent management of renewable energy generation and utilities with flexibility in managing their infrastructure investments, reducing costs, increasing reliability and meeting renewable energy goals. The platform provides intelligent dynamic near real-time control over DERs.