Underpinning Saint John's Net-Zero Transition Through Policy, Storage, and Grid Resilience
Goal
To equip Saint John Engergy with the analytical tools needed to advance its Zero30 net-zero strategy: an evaluation framework and Community Solar Program design for structuring renewable investment; a forecast-driven battery dispatch policy that lowers peak-demand costs and emissions; and a hosting-capacity and voltage-stability model that de-risks grid infrastructure investment as distributed solar and storage adoption accelerates. Together, these tools provide the technical basis for safely scaling distributed solar interconnections delivering a more affordable, reliable, and lower-carbon electricity system backed by data-driven decision-making.
Description
Saint John Energy (SJE) is pursuing a net-zero electricity transition under its Zero30 initiative, This multi-stream project provides the analytical and data-driven tools required to advance this strategy across three core areas:
Policy & Procurement: Evaluates renewable energy proposals against public-value and policy criteria to structure a future Community Solar Program.
Smart Operations: Develops a weather-forecast-informed, reinforcement-learning dispatch policy for SJE's battery storage fleet to flatten costly, carbon-intensive winter demand peaks
Grid Infrastructure: Builds a digital model of SJE’s distribution feeder to quantify hosting capacity and voltage stability as rooftop and grid-scale solar adoption accelerates.
Budget: $215,000 CAD
Timeline: 2025-26
Our team
Scientific director
- Prof. Ursula Eicker, Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Communities and Cities, and Founding Director of NGCI, Scientific director
- Daniel Curwin, PhD student, NGCI, Project coordinator
Research collaborators:
- Athena Karami Fardian, PhD student, NGCI
- Bilal Khan, PhD student, NGCI
