Huge battery project in Sault Ste. Marie is expected to save hospital millions in energy costs

A giant battery project designed tohelpthe Sault Area Hospital save plenty ofenergy and money is in the works.

The hospital has partnered with Sault Ste. Marie's local utility company to install a battery that's roughly the size of four shipping containers a project that's the first of its kind in the region.

The president and CEO of PUC Services, Rob Brewer, says the hope is the initiative will help save the hospital hundreds of thousands of dollars ayear.

"The hospital uses power consistently throughout the day, and so they get in situations where, at peak times, they end up with some significantly higher pricing," he said.

"We were able to work with the hospital to put in a battery storage facilitythat allows them to use off-peak energy, store it, use it at peak times of the day, andthat helps them keep their their energy costs down."

Why would the local utility company want to want to help a customer do this?

"We're owned by the city that we live in. And anything we can do to try to help either local businesses or in this case, the hospital to try to save some energy costs means that, in the case of the hospital, they're going to be able to redeploy that into patient care dollars, which I think is good for all of us," Brewer told Up North CBC host Jonathan Pinto.

"And in the case of other businesses that we'll be working with and we hope to have some announcements in the near future it allows them to have more competitive energy costs, which allows them to grow and thrive here in Sault Ste. Marie, which is a great thing for all of us."

The battery, which Brewer says isin the four megawatt hour range, will cost between $4 million and $5 million to buy, install and engineer. Theyhope to have it up and running by July.

The idea of using batteries as a way to save on energy costs is becoming more common, Brewer says.

"We're seeing the cost of batteries really coming down to where these options really become available. And so what we've done is we've just created an innovative partnership with Demand Power, who's a supplier of the equipment, and they've got some really unique expertise that allows us to assess the hospital, with not only seeing some energy savings, but also getting better power quality, and [creating] a redundant power," he said.

"So in the event of an outage, if something happened, a storm in the area or type thing, then it's that much extra that the hospital hasavailable to it before their generators would have to kick in or they'd have to curtail [power use]."

Increased battery use is something that will likely be used in the residential sector at some point, Brewer notes.

"We're already starting to see things like power walls become available. With the way that battery prices have come down, we do expect that that will be an option in the very near future," he said.

"Part of our mandate is to try to help and be innovative and serve our customers. And we think that this particular project [at the hospital] does both of those. And it's a really good thing for our community."