The project was led by Rob Kolt, who was formerly an employee of Manitoba Hydro for more than 37 years. During his career at Manitoba Hydro, Rob was the head of the Power Quality section for 13 years. He was responsible for planning, organizing, monitoring and administration of Manitoba Hydro’s customer-focused power quality initiatives and the integration of various non-linear technologies to the utility distribution grid. During this time, Rob and his team investigated different types of distribution-level and grid-level energy storage technologies with the aim of improving power quality using the most cost-effective solutions. 

Rob applied this experience to perform an in-depth literature review of the latest storage technologies on the market. One of TGS’ core strengths is our research and development experts, who are always investigating the latest technologies related to power systems.

Various electrical energy storage systems were reviewed including Mechanical, Electrochemical, and Electric Field options. The selection of the most applicable technology(s) depends on the particular application which is based on the rated power, rated energy, and discharge duration demands of the electrical grid. The selected technology must also address any power quality requirements such as frequency regulation with a front end inverter and storage that can quickly respond to these variations. The promising technologies should also be mature and proven with minimal risks and be a cost-effective solution to offset the diesel generation of their grid.

Based on the above considerations, it was ultimately concluded that the best storage technology for our client’s system were the battery systems, with the most cost-effective at the time being the lead acid BESS, followed by the lithium ion BESS.