Research & Development | Emera & NB Power Research Centre for Smart Grid Technologies | UNB

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Smart Grid

Research and Development

The Emera & NB Power Research Centre for Smart Grid Technologies brings together R&D, innovation, commercial partnerships and state-of-the-art research facilities to lead the smart grid revolution.

Our researchers include pioneers in the fields of renewable energy systems, signal and image processing, wind forecasting, cybersecurity, big data and technology management, among others.

Emera Chair in Smart Grid Technologies

The Emera Chair in Smart Grid Technologies, as established within the centre, will lead the smart grid research and training of highly qualified people in an ecosystem that couples research to innovation and entrepreneurship.

Current projects

Current projects include:

Atlantic Digital Grid

With support of the Government of Canada, the University of New Brunswick will be undertaking a five-year research initiative to develop new technologies and advance smart grid expertise, competitiveness, and industry presence in Atlantic Canada. 

Integrated DER Solutions for Smart Grids

An investment of more than $4.3 million from the Government of Canada and Emera Inc. will help refine technology to promote renewable energy.

The project includes designing, building, testing and demonstrating a suite of distributed energy resource solutions for commercialization by industry and implementation by utilities. Emera will deploy and test the project results within its system network at Barbados Light and Power. After testing in a real-world environment, the results will be refined and validated through industry players, users, suppliers, regulators and others.

NSERC NEST

The NSERC Energy Storage Technology (NEST) network is taking the lead in bringing together leading academic, industry, utility and government partners to develop, test and demonstrate and ultimately commercialize innovative energy storage technologies through multidisciplinary and collaborative R&D.

The NEST Network is a strategic partnership between 27 professors from 15 universities representing eight provinces, who will bring experience from diverse and multidisciplinary backgrounds in mathematics, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering. The network includes 25 partners representing technology suppliers/service providers, utilities, industry associations/not-for-profits, and government organizations.

Dr. Liuchen Chang is one of four theme leaders for the NEST Network.

NEST Network researchers will work on 24 ES projects on battery, flywheel, compressed air and thermal energy storage solutions to create ES products for Canadian companies and train 240 students in a five-year div.

NSERC CRD direct load control

A $960,000 collaborative research and development grant from NSERC will fund research into direct load control for alternative power system resources.

Smart Grid Research Lab

Since the early 2000s, members of the Smart Grid Research Lab have worked on large-scale, multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary R&D projects with industry and government partners such as NRCan, Government of New Brunswick, NB Power, Siemens Canada, and many others.

Past Projects

  • PowerShift Atlantic was a research and demonstration project focused on finding more effective ways to integrate wind energy into the electricity system of the Maritimes.
  • NSERC Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet) is the first wind energy network in Canada and is made up of 39 leading Canadian researchers from 16 universities, working in close collaboration with 15 partners from industry, wind institutes and governments.