Energy storage procurement at the IESO

The procurement of energy storage resources began in 2012 when the IESO procured six megawatts of regulation - a specialized service that maintains second-by-second balance on the grid - from two storage facilities. Today, as a result, NRStor Inc., in partnership with Temporal Power is providing two megawatts of regulation using flywheel technologies, and Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. delivers Ontario's first battery regulation service with four megawatts of capability.

In 2014, a new competitive energy storage procurement framework was initiated that included two consecutive phases for a total target of 50 megawatts.

In the first phase, the IESO selected storage technologies offering ancillary services to support increased reliability and efficiency of the grid. In the second phase, the IESO sought technologies with a range of performance characteristics that can store energy when prices are lower and re-inject it at other times of the day when prices are higher.

IESO Report: Energy Storage

The IESO’s technical report on energy storage focuses on the reliability needs of the Ontario power system and the potential for energy storage technologies to address those needs.

Phase I

In July, 2014, the IESO selected the following five companies to provide ancillary services to the power grid:

• Canadian Solar Solutions Inc.
• Convergent Energy and Power LLC
• Dimplex North America LTD,
• Hecate Energy
• Hydrogenics Corp.

The IESO will take the lessons from the operation of these projects, totalling approximately 34 megawatts (MW), to better understand day-to-day operation of the power grid using electricity storage.  Read the media release and backgrounder. Further updates regarding this projects may be found in the 18-month outlook.

Phase II

In November, 2015, the IESO offered 10-year contracts to five companies, listed below, for nine separate energy storage projects totalling 16.75 MW.

• Phase II communications (zip)
• Phase II program documents (zip)
• Backgrounder and ministry communications (zip)