Ontario's IESO selects nearly 1.8 GW of battery storage projects

The Ontario government announced on Thursday close to 1.8 GW of capacity awards in what it says has ended up being the largest battery storage procurement in Canada’s history.

Ontario’s Independent Electricity Systems Operator (IESO) released the final results of its Long-Term Request for Proposals (LT1 RFP) for additional energy resources, which showed that 10 proponents were selected in the Storage Category for a combined 1,784 MW of maximum contract capacity. A further three were successful in the Non-Storage Category for an additional 410.7 MW of natural gas and on-farm biogas generation to bring the total to 2,195 MW.

Presently, the IESO is in the process of offering contracts to the 13 selected proponents.

The 10 storage projects range in size from 9 MW to 390 MW of maximum contracted capacity. The two largest, Grey Owl Storage (380 MW) and Skyview 2 (390 MW), are located in the municipality of Arran-Elderslie and the township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal, respectively. The names of all selected proponents are available on the website of the IESO.

Together with the capacity from the previous round of the procurement and the Oneida Battery Storage Facility, Ontario’s entire storage fleet will consist of 26 facilities totalling 2,916 MW, which surpasses the government’s initial target of 2,500 MW.

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