Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec play host to 2018 winter schools
The University of Waterloo hosted theme 3’s winter school on March 8, 2018.
NESTNet’s theme-based Winter Schools took place this year in February and March in three provinces: Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia. The Winter Schools gave NESTNet students the opportunity to learn more about each other’s research projects.
Themes 1 and 4
In this first year of jointly held Winter School, presentations for Themes 1 and 4 took place at the Governeur Congress Centre in Shawinigan, Quebec from February 22-23, 2018. Jocelyn Millette and his research team at Hydro-Quebec also participated in the Winter School activities by presenting their projects to the group as well as providing a tour of the Shawinigan branch of IREQ (external link, opens in new window) , Hydro-Quebec’s research institute. Presentation topics ranged from the examination of federal and provincial energy storage policy frameworks to thermal energy storage and flywheel testing for grid-scale energy storage.
Theme 2
Theme 2’s Winter School was held at Dalhousie University in Halifax from April 9-10, 2018. Some of the focuses of projects presented were battery-enabled EV fast charging systems, repurposing EV batteries for grid storage, and coordinated operation of multiple storage units and technologies. Invited speakers included Jill Searle of Nova Scotia Power and Denis Burkov of eCAMION.
Theme 3
The University of Waterloo hosted Theme 3’s Winter School on March 8, 2018. Presentation topics included grid energy storage in Ontario, evaluating the benefits of energy storage for distribution networks, energy storage device protection and optimal planning of energy storage facilities in transmission systems. Daniel Sohm of Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), Steven Wenyang Shi of National Research Council (NRC) Canada, and Ahmed Awad of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) also presented to the group.
Outlook
This year’s NESTNet Winter School sessions were both informative and engaging with 77 participants attending across all themes. In future sessions, we plan to build on this year’s success by visiting local distribution centre research labs not unlike that of IREQ’s Shawinigan branch. Next year entails a joint Winter School with Themes 2 and 4 similar to that of Themes 1 and 4 this year.
Kiki Cekota and Omair Sandhu are interns at Ryerson University's Centre for Urban Energy.
"This year’s NESTNet winter school sessions were both informative and engaging with 77 participants attending across all themes"