Providing the customers with sustainable energy solutions is incredibly important to ATCO (ATCO Electric), wherever they may be located.
They serve many communities located hundreds of kilometers from the main electrical grid, over a vast geographic area in northern Alberta and Canada’s North – communities that have relied on costly and carbon-intensive isolated diesel-powered generation for decades.
In 2017, ATCO initiated a program to interconnect these communities to the grid, where possible. But for places like Fort Chipewyan in Northern Alberta, where a grid connection was just not possible, ATCO fundamentally shifted their approach.
Partnering to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
ATCO began construction in 2018 on an initial 600-kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system
Working closely together with the local Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Fort Chipewyan Métis Local 125, ATCO began construction in 2018 on an initial 600-kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system to integrate with the existing diesel generation system. This greener solution was successfully energized in the late summer of 2019.
But the partnership doesn’t end there. A second project that includes an Indigenous-owned 2,200 kilowatt solar farm, with a utility-owned battery energy storage system and micro grid control system, is planned for 2020.
ATCO’s Fort Chipewyan project
Together, these two projects will achieve 800,000 liters of annual diesel savings, a roughly 25 per cent reduction, and will help minimize emissions and reduce the risks associated with transporting diesel to the area.
Learn more about ATCO’s Fort Chipewyan project and renewable micro grids in isolated communities, which integrate solar or wind power with existing diesel generation systems to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.