Energy Storage Canada (ESC) is a not-for-profit organization, and the national trade association dedicated to the development of the industry across the country. As Executive Director Justin Rangooni says of the organization’s mission, “Our goal is to expand energy storage in every jurisdiction in Canada.”
ESC began in the early 2010s as Energy Storage Ontario and was brought to life by various innovators in the sector who felt that national decision-makers should be more educated on energy storage technologies.
In the time since Rangooni signed on to his position in 2019, ESC has seen new energy storage projects announced across the country, both big and small, as well as ongoing energy storage procurement targets including contracts awarded up to 3000 megawatts in Ontario. He says the phenomenal growth in such a short period of time is indicative of the hard work of ESC and its members as they continue to strive to cement Canadian leadership in the industry.
While ESC focuses exclusively on energy storage—of all technologies and durations—it supports the industry through a range of services, including advocating for policy, providing education and resources, as well as offering networking opportunities for those involved in the conversation. “We think energy storage is central to Canada’s energy transition… without energy storage, it cannot happen,” Rangooni says. ESC is advocating for energy storage to be integrated to the grid at all levels—utility scale, distributed energy resources (DERs), vehicle-to-grid, and behind-the-metre (BTM), of all durations.
Rangooni says that energy storage does more than just storing renewable energy like solar, wind power, or tidal power; it also helps optimize sources like hydroelectricity, nuclear, hydrogen, and more. He believes that the ability and use of energy storage covers the entire energy landscape, not just certain areas, which is why energy storage resources are an increasingly attractive option.
The energy storage industry in Canada is strong. The growth and momentum of the industry has been exceptional in the past five years, reflecting the larger global trend of energy storage installations exceeding projections at every turn. The growing number of companies engaged in the energy storage industry across Canada is further evidence of the ever-expanding breadth of the sector. It is not just storage developers and battery manufacturers driving the scale of energy storage development, but the full end-to-end value chain, from utilities to electric vehicle manufacturers, EPCs to municipalities. Indeed, many more provinces and entities are seeing the growth of energy storage and viewing it as a critical tool.
ESC has over 100 members, a significant milestone considering that, only five years ago, the number of organizations under its banner was less than half of that. This growth is a reflection of the work ESC and its members have done to provide resources for energy stakeholders, including a report in 2020 providing an assessment of the value of energy storage to the Ontario power grid, a paper that set the stage for current procurement.
The organization has also done seminal written work on the contribution of energy storage resources to achieving Canada’s net zero goals by 2035, outlining how much energy storage would be required (around eight to twelve gigawatts), as well as providing Canada’s first estimates of that potential provincially. This year, ESC released its first long-duration energy storage (LDES) paper, analyzing the substantial potential of LDES to contribute to the realization of Ontario’s goals of economic development and decarbonization.
Advocating for energy storage is not without its complications, and ESC must contend with the simple reality that every province has its own energy policies and market regulations. Often the organization starts from the beginning to educate stakeholders, government representatives, and regulators on the benefits of energy storage through policy submissions, white papers, and advocacy to provincial governments and potential customers. The result is seeing some provinces such as Ontario, Alberta, and Nova Scotia setting procurement targets, where ESC and its members can continue to serve as a resource throughout the deployment and implementation.
Every province is essentially its own country in terms of energy policy and system planning, and as Rangooni says, not everyone is aligned on how to meet energy goals despite agreeing on issues like decarbonization. The challenge for ESC is to ensure that Canada maintains its clean energy advantage, while respecting each province’s responsibilities toward their own energy policies. It is an interesting balance to achieve, especially considering the diversity of energy resources deployed in each province.
Rangooni says that Ontario is currently the country’s leader in procuring energy storage, with a target of approximately 3,000 megawatts of short-duration energy storage to support its capacity needs, garnering worldwide attention. Alberta is another leading province, with over 100 megawatts of its first energy storage projects energized, connected, and providing value to the system. Rangooni says that Alberta was the first out of the gate for energy storage in Canada, but in a free market system like Alberta’s, it’s important to ensure market rules create a level playing field for energy storage resources to compete with other forms of energy generation.
Rangooni says that, with any infrastructure, there will always be questions to answer, and energy storage is no different. Currently, the most common questions ESC addresses are related to fire safety for battery energy storage systems (BESS). He explains that ESC has been able to bring in safety experts, including firefighters, to provide test data and regulations for battery source systems in North America, as well as Canada specifically, to reassure interested parties that, if these batteries are kept up to code, the risks are minimal and can be contained by safety features inherent to the containers.
Generally, Rangooni says, the Canadian public understands the advantages of energy storage, especially as an offset for intermittent resources such as solar or wind power. Energy storage resources enable excess inexpensive energy produced in the electricity system to be stored until later when the system demand is higher. Energy storage is also proving to be a bipartisan political issue, with both sides of the aisle interested in the value it provides.
ESC is working with governments and regulators to increase awareness of energy storage as a mainstream resource and tool for the energy system, normalizing the key role it plays. Long-term, the organization wants to ensure that emerging energy storage technologies such as longer duration solutions or different battery chemistries are being considered as well.
In the immediate term, ESC is looking forward to the upcoming Energy Storage Canada Conference, the biggest energy storage-dedicated conference in Canada, hosted October 8 and 9 at the Beanfield Centre in Toronto. The conference is focused exclusively on energy storage topics and provides a range of networking opportunities with the industry’s key stakeholders. “You need a dedicated organization like this to advance energy storage across the country,” Rangooni says, and ESC remains as steadfast as ever in its vision.
