NB Power is partnering with Siemens Canada to build a smarter, cleaner, more resilient and efficient power grid.

This modern power grid will benefit customers in many ways:

• Giving customers more information, choices and control over their energy usage
• Helping us prevent some outages, and restore power faster when they do occur
• Enabling more energy-saving products and more convenient service
• Making it easier to connect customer-owned renewable energy sources to the grid

Over the long term, the goals are to strengthen reliability, support growth in renewable energy, and reduce the peak winter demand on the power grid. This could help in avoiding the build of expensive power plants and potentially reduce carbon emissions.

Siemens commits to New Brunswick’s energy future

As part of the partnership with NB Power that began in 2012, Siemens established two new global Smart Grid Centres in Fredericton, one in smart grid consulting and the other in smart grid software research and development. In 2018, Siemens announced a new global Cybersecurity Centre in Fredericton. The Centre brought Siemens global expertise to support New Brunswick’s emerging cybersecurity businesses. Both local and international experts work in these Siemens global centres.

The growth of a smart energy hub

NB Power and Siemens continue to make strides toward advancing smart grid and related opportunities in New Brunswick. In 2016, NB Power, Siemens and the University of New Brunswick created the Smart Grid Innovation Network (SGIN) to encourage smart grid innovation. The SGIN offers a three-lab testing environment for businesses that have smart grid-related products, services, or solutions. The SGIN helps businesses overcome technical hurdles so they can take advantage of the great opportunities in this growing market. NB Power and Siemens partnered with government, universities, research institutes, and start-ups to grow smart grid expertise and technology for the benefit of New Brunswick and to share this expertise with the globe.

Learn more about the companies who have benefited from working with SGIN.

A new energy system platform

On January 2019, Siemens, NB Power and Nova Scotia Power (NSP) were awarded $35.66 M CAD in federal funding for a joint pilot project aimed at analyzing challenges and opportunities posed by Canada’s energy transition.  The partners will research and test in real-time how the grid of the future can optimize integration of renewables, ensure stability of the grid and manage decentralized distribution in order to better manage the provinces’ electricity, potentially reduce future electricity costs for consumers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The pilot, officially called the Smart Grid Atlantic project, is being funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund. Total project cost is $92.7 million. Siemens will research and develop the made-in-Canada Energy System Platform (ESP) software and a microgrid control platform and NB Power and NSP will provide the needed assets and customer engagement to demonstrate and test these platforms in real scenarios and real time. Learn more about the Smart Grid Atlantic Project.

Together, Siemens and NB Power expands clean energy and technology opportunities to further New Brunswick’s economic development and prepare for a changing energy future. Read about the NB Power and Siemens partnership here.