In 2021, SECC will be recognizing a member each month, providing an organizational profile and highlighting the member''s accomplishments and output in the smart energy space.
Saint John Energy is a progressive Canadian energy company serving Saint John, New Brunswick. Locally owned and operated since 1922, the company provides trusted energy solutions to more than 36,000 residential and business customers. One of the highest-rated electric utilities in the nation for reliability and customer satisfaction, it holds the coveted Sustainable Electricity Company designation and is recognized as one of the most innovative utilities in Canada.
As Saint John Energy nears a century of service, it is creating the utility of the future for its customers – driving innovation in smart energy products, forging new renewable energy opportunities and developing advanced artificial intelligence to create a smart grid for the city.
With its Smart Energy Project, it is leveraging artificial intelligence and other technologies to advance Saint John''s electric grid and to connect its evolving smart energy product line.
Its advanced smart grid will allow it to manage and shift peak demand by relying on artificial intelligence, weather forecasts and other data to smooth peak energy events. As it softens peak demand, it will help its wholesale supplier of electricity lower GHG emissions associated with high-emitting generation plants brought online in times of peak demand.
Saint John Energy''s smart grid is ushering in a broad array of intelligent devices and products – from hot water heaters to heat pumps, smart thermostats, advanced batteries and home electric vehicle chargers.
Saint John Energy is partnering with wind energy developer Natural Forces to establish the first large-scale wind project in the city – a $60 million venture that will supply up to 43 megawatts of low-cost, clean energy.
Burchill not only will allow the company to accelerate the shift to green energy, it also reduces the utility''s reliance on generation from outside its territory and is expected to generate significant savings in power purchasing.
The company is also exploring new solar energy projects, including the feasibility of a community solar garden. The large-scale, ground-mounted solar array would allow its customers to rent solar panels in the array and have the generation from those panels credited to their power bills.
As part of its innovative agenda, Saint John Energy is exploring and adopting leading-edge energy storage solutions.
In late 2019, it became the first in the world to deploy a Tesla Megapack. The state-of-the-art 1.25 MW/2.5 MWh battery allows the company to manage peak energy in new ways, saving money and curbing carbon emissions along the way.
The massive 51,000-pound battery, which stores enough electricity to power more than 100 homes for two hours, is the sort of technology that will help the company manage the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation, including its wind and solar projects.
Saint John Energy is rolling out an array of new products and services for its customers. Its award-winning heat pump rental program has been a resounding success, with demand far exceeding the company''s expectations.
To pilot its smart home bundle – a suite of products that includes a smart heat pump, smart water heater and smart thermostat – it partnered with a developer completely retrofitting once-condemned housing into new apartments.
It is partnering with Stash Energy, a New Brunswick startup that has created an intelligent heat pump with built-in energy storage, to test Stash units in customers'' homes. In doing so, it is exploring not only how to serve customers with advanced technology but backing local innovators.
Its new Home Heat Saver program allows its customers to pinpoint heat loss from their homes through sophisticated aerial thermal imaging. A free and confidential service, it enables homeowners to log in to their accounts to see a private and customized thermal image of their rooftops, allowing them to see where they have the most heat loss. The utility offers to connect customers with rebate programs, efficiency services and innovative products to improve their home''s energy efficiency.
It has built a strong corporate culture around giving back to the community, and its employees and the company are known for their generous donations to local organizations. Every employee is encouraged to volunteer their time with community causes and has one hour of paid time a week to dedicate to their volunteer work.
It has a record of throwing its support behind community initiatives like a major annual fundraiser to fund food banks in the region, a literacy program for students at a neighborhood school and working with local government and others to enhance community safety.
Recently, it partnered with the City of Saint John and clean technology company Liveable Cities to install sensors on LED street lights across the city that detect the movement of traffic and send back anonymous data that is then used to help improve traffic management and safety, allowing the city to make evidence-based decisions around issues such as traffic calming measures.
For more information on Saint John Energy, visit
SECC is a nonprofit organization that works to learn the wants and needs of energy consumers in North America, encourages the collaborative sharing of best practices in consumer engagement among industry stakeholders, and educates the public about the benefits of smart energy technology.
I still vividly remember the day a crane lowered the massive 51,000-pound Tesla Megapack battery into place in Millidgeville while a handful of Saint John Energy engineers watched with nervous excitement.
It was an inauspicious moment for what we would later discover – it marked the world''s first deployment of a Megapack.
It landed in late 2019 and by last April the Megapack was fully installed, connected to our distribution system and ready to be put to work.
A year in, we''re already impressed with how the Megapack has helped us manage our energy flow in a way that is cleaner for the environment and saves money.
The Megapack – which can store enough electricity to power more than 100 homes for two hours – is a key piece of our work to build the Utility of the Future for Saint John.
It works with the advanced smart grid we are creating – a $13.5 million project unique in Canada for its ambition and the technology deployed.
Our smart grid will leverage artificial intelligence to predict energy demand and allow us to shift resources to meet that demand. One of the ways we can shift is the Megapack.
Both the grid and battery storage are essential to our work managing peak energy demand. Peak demand is costly – for us, for our customers, and for the planet.
As the first Sustainable Electricity Company in Eastern Canada, making smart choices for the environment is important to us.
Satisfying the demand for peak energy can lead our wholesale electricity supplier to fire up generation sources that emit carbon. In our province, power generation brought on by peak demand can produce twice as much carbon dioxide as off-peak generation.
Everything we can do to avoid peaks in energy helps us avoid the financial and environmental costs that come with them.
The Megapack is one way we can shave the peak. We fuel it up with electricity at times of low demand and discharge it into the grid when we need it most.
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