An optimal microgrid implementation is the highlight to a research project that will benefit Saskatoon residents.

Research Junction, a collaboration between the City of Saskatoon and the university, announced  four new applied research projects on Jan. 7. Among them is a microgrid system for the city. 

Microgrids, as the name suggests, are small power grid systems. Microgrids are a group of interconnected loads that are either self-sufficient or connected to a larger grid. 

“Our goal is to lead in their large distribution system [and] farm some microgrid,” Liang said, who is an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Saskatchewan.

Liang says that the research will involve two steps: system planning and system operation. She will be working with three graduate students and employees from Saskatoon Light and Power.

“This is a pretty large project actually,” Liang said.

Saskatoon’s existing power grid system is a conventional grid, which means that the electricity generated is transmitted unidirectionally, or in a single line, from generators to substations and then to consumers. The power comes from the Queen Elizabeth Power Station and the Cory Cogeneration Station, two natural-gas-powered plants.

If the main components of the city’s power grid are affected, everything in the system is affected as well. 

“We get power from the traditional generating stations like steam turbines or gas turbines or from hydroelectric power plants. So where there is a fault in the traditional [system], the whole system collapses and as a result blackouts occur,” said Md Abu Saaklayen, a graduate student working under Liang.

Microgrids can mitigate this issue. 

In Sendai, Japan, a microgrid was built over a decade ago powered by solar, gas and battery. During the 2011 tsunami and earthquake disasters that caused national outages in the country, Sendai was able to produce power and heat for the teaching hospital of Tohoku Fukushi University.

In the Indigenous community Blue Lake Rancheria in California, a newer microgrid provided electricity to thousands of people in 2019 when the power shut off because of wildfires. 

Saaklayen says that self-sufficient grids will help the city by improving system reliability and voltage profile and reducing losses and costs. In cases of disturbances and outages, these microgrids will also achieve fast and automatic service restoration.

“It fits well with the city of Saskatoon… It will improve system reliability and service quality to the customers and realize continuous improvement and also promote sustainable growth by integrating more renewable energy sources and energy storage in the future distribution system,” Saaklayen said.

The microgrid system can also be helpful in generating power for small towns in the province, says Saaklayen.

“From the generating station, we need to carry our power to remote locations,” Saaklayen said. “If microgrid is implemented, then in remote locations this power can be directed locally.”

Saaklayen says that the city will benefit from this research in terms of costs and renewable energy.

“This increasing penetration of renewable energy sources forms the modern mixed energy landscape… If we can make an appropriate plan, then the system will eventually increase,” Saaklayen said. “Adding more renewable energy sources will reduce the electricity producing cost.”

Liang says that this research project will not only benefit the residents of Saskatoon but also the students she will work with.

“This is an industrial project, so [the students] are able to not just focus on a paper or on a simulation,” Liang said. “They are about to help with a real life system, real life data, to be able to be integrated into the research.”

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J.C. Balicanta Narag | Editor-in-Chief

Photo: J.C. Balicanta Narag | Editor-in-Chief