SWITCH Power Corporation (“SWITCH” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that it has successfully commissioned five battery energy storage systems (“BESS”) in Ontario.
The five BESS projects, located adjacent to our clients’ facilities in the Greater Toronto Area, have a combined capacity of 3,310 kW/7,874 kWh and are under long-term Energy Services Agreements. The projects were energized between July 2022 and March 2023 to provide cost savings for our clients by reducing consumption during high priced hours, while also participating in Ontario’s ancillary services market.
“Commissioning five BESS is a significant milestone for SWITCH,” said Trevor White, SWITCH president and CEO. “These assets represent our first year of construction activities in Ontario and I am proud of how our team safely executed these projects, while navigating significant market forces related to inflation and supply chain. These assets will provide electricity cost savings to our clients as well as play a role in Ontario’s energy market and grid transformation by demonstrating the ability of distributed energy resources to be an integral part of the energy mix.”
SWITCH acquired the projects as part of an acquisition of operating and development BESS projects from Peak Power in October 2021, and subsequently managed the procurement, engineering, construction, and commissioning of the projects. Peak Power is contracted to provide dispatch services and the energy optimization software platform, Peak Synergy, to capture global adjustment savings and ancillary services revenue. The BESS systems were supplied by Calgary based Eneon-ES, expanding the existing SWITCH fleet of BESS assets. SWITCH Power Ontario Battery Operations Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of SWITCH, owns, operates, and maintains the BESS. In addition, over $2.3 million in funding was provided by Natural Resources Canada’s $1.56 billion Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways program.
“The modernization of electricity grids across Canada will ensure that communities have access to clean, reliable and affordable energy,” said the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources. “The Federal Government is supporting SWITCH Power to deploy energy storage systems across Ontario, while creating jobs and contributing to the development of a reliable net-zero electricity systems by 2035."
With the commissioning of these assets, SWITCH has nine operating BESS in Ontario with four additional BESS projects under development. SWITCH plans to continue to grow its portfolio of BESS and solar assets in Ontario through origination and acquisition.
