An event was held on Wednesday afternoon to mark the commissioning of Saskatchewan's first-ever utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS), which is now online.
The system can provide up to 20 megawatts of power to the grid, which is the equivalent of powering up to 20,000 homes for one hour.
Rupen Pandya, SaskPower's president and CEO, said this is a historic day for SaskPower as it marks the official commissioning of the first utility-scale BESS into the company's fleet.
“This is a first-of-a-kind project that our company is endeavoured on, and it is a welcome addition to the entire SaskPower system,” Pandya said. “Battery energy storage provides flexibility to our grid because it can respond quickly to short-term power fluctuations, and it also supports our goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.”
The Saskatchewan minister responsible for SaskPower said the addition of battery storage will enable SaskPower to better respond to the fluctuating demands of the province's electrical grid.
“SaskPower's clean energy transition is well underway and will only accelerate in coming years, with up to 50 per cent of power coming from renewables by 2030 and 3,000 MW of renewables added to the grid by 2035,” Dustin Duncan said.
“Battery energy storage has the potential to enable and support renewable power development for years by balancing the demand for power with the availability of clean energy generation. The Regina battery energy storage system is just the first step down that road.”
BESS construction began in 2022 in Regina. The facility cost $34 million to build.
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