Speaker: Ben Hazlett
Date: November 7th, 2019
Ben Hazlett is Manager of Distribution Policies and Standards with Hydro Ottawa Limited. In the various capacities at Hydro Ottawa, Ben’s primary focus at Hydro Ottawa has been Asset Management including system capacity planning, reliability planning, and asset planning as well as system performance monitoring. In his current role, Ben oversees the engineering teams responsible for the planning, design and construction of the distribution system. Ben has passion for leading solutions which interface people, process and technical aspects, to deliver value for Hydro Ottawa’s customers.
Presentation
For over 100 years, Hydro Ottawa Limited has worked as a local distribution company (LDC) serving over 300,000 customers in the Ottawa and Casselman regions. Its distribution network includes a variety of substations, lines, transformers, and metering systems.
The emergence and acceleration of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Ottawa area presents a range of challenges for Hydro Ottawa. This is because Hydro Ottawa’s work is concerned with ensuring that the level of electricity supplied is always sufficient to meet demand. Therefore, distribution technologies (wires, transformers…) are sized in order to meet predicted demand. However, the charging of EVs increases electricity demand significantly, especially in residential areas where 80-90% of charging occurs. This increased electricity demand represents significant problems for Hydro Ottawa, which now must upgrade distribution technology in order to meet this elevated demand.
This issue of meeting elevated consumer demand is particularly challenging due to the fact that most EV owners arrive home from work and plug in their vehicles at approximately the same time (between 5pm and 7pm). Thus, this time segment, which already represents a period of high electricity demand, now has even higher demand that must be met.
Predicting and planning for variations in future electricity demand and EV uptake is one challenge faced by Hydro Ottawa. As an LDC, Hydro Ottawa has an obligation to serve its customers and supply demand, meaning that they will have to upsize distribution infrastructure as demand increases. However, the challenge will be to also not oversize infrastructure and thus incur excessive costs. While forecasts can help Hydro Ottawa navigate this turbulence, predicting future electricity demand is no simple feat, especially considering fluctuating political support for EVs in Ontario.
A supplementary challenge that Hydro Ottawa is facing in regard to the integration of EVs into the electricity grid is managing multi-unit residential buildings. This category of building is particularly difficult to supply electricity service for EVs due to the challenges related to attributing elevated electricity costs, managing charging stations and parking, and administering shared investments.
Looking for Solutions
Effectively managing EV integration into Ottawa’s electricity grid will require the deployment of complex market solutions and tools. One innovative solution that Hydro Ottawa is currently considering is called ‘MiGen Transactive grid.’ This tool allows for smart electricity production and distribution, allowing customers to generate more of their own electricity, store it, and send what is not used back to the grid. MiGen is essentially a ‘set it and forget’ electricity management system; it would allow customers to set their preferences (for example, when they would like to have their EV charged by) and then allow the system to efficiently balance electricity supply and demand.
A key take-away from Mr. Hazlett’s talk was the fact that the transition towards the electrification of transportation will and already is shifting energy delivery away from the current oil and gas pathways and towards the electric power grid. This transition will transform the distribution grid and electricity infrastructure, necessitating agile policy solutions and technical innovations, but will ultimately lead to the creation of a more sustainable and efficient energy system in Ottawa.
Discussion
The discussion following Mr. Hazlett’s presentation addressed a variety of topics, including market solutions to EV infrastructure, the role of public policy, and the feasibility of innovations such as bidirectional flow from EV batteries.
A major limitation to the proliferation of EVs in Ottawa is the lack of charging infrastructure. Therefore, one student suggested promoting a market solution: making EV charger installation a business. However, unfortunately this is not a profitable business model. Thus, the question moving forward is, considering the lack of private market incentives, who should be installing EV charging stations? Since these would be for the public good rather than profit, it’s likely that a government body will have to be the one to make the necessary investments.
Policymakers have an integral role to play in the transition and integration of EVs in Ottawa. Data from when Premier Wynne implemented a rebate program that gave buyers up to $14,000 back shows a resulting massive increase in uptake of EVs. Similarly, when Ford cut this program in 2018, data shows that demand for EVs fell drastically. Considering this substantial impact of public policy on EV uptake and thus electricity consumption, Hydro Ottawa does its best to produce a comprehensive plan for electricity distribution every five years. However, the combined impact of emerging disruptive technologies and fluctuating public policy make this a challenging task. Nonetheless, Hydro Ottawa is expecting EV uptake to increase drastically in the next few decades.
Innovations will play an important role in the emerging energy system. One emerging technology that was suggested was the possibility of using EV batteries as electricity storage systems which could feed the load in a house or building. While experimentation is ongoing, unfortunately this technology has proven to be extremely expensive and unreliable. This is because EV batteries are built to be lightweight and transportable, and thus large-scale energy storage using them is impractical. A much more promising innovation is improvements in metering technology that allow the integration of smart control systems which can more efficiently dispatch electricity.
Precis completed by Silke Popescu, MA Sustainable Energy student.
Read more about MiGen Transactive Grid : https://hydroottawa.com/save-energy/innovation/migen