PowerStream Expanding Residential Solar-Storage Through Other Utilities

VAUGHAN, ON--(Marketwired - October 07, 2016) - PowerStream signed a partnership agreement Friday with Thunder Bay Hydro that will allow the Northern Ontario-based electricity distribution company to take advantage of a residential solar-storage technology currently being piloted with customers in York Region and Simcoe County under the program name "POWER.HOUSE".

The partnership agreement between the two utilities is in response to a growing interest within the industry to introduce residential solar-storage technology to Ontario customers. Bringing POWER.HOUSE to the Thunder Bay area will also provide PowerStream with an opportunity to learn how the technology performs in northern geographies where daylight periods are significantly longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.

POWER.HOUSE technology can aggregate a fleet of residential solar and battery storage systems to form a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). These systems can be autonomously controlled through intelligent software to simulate a single, larger power generating facility. It features a combination of rooftop solar PV panels and a lithium-ion battery installed behind the meter at customers' homes that help to protect against power outages, off-set peak hour electricity prices to provide significant reductions on bills and reduce strain on the grid during peak system demand, while delivering clean power directly to the customer.

PowerStream received an exceptional amount of customer interest in 2015 when the company recruited for the first phase of its pilot initiative. Following the launch of the program early this year, the innovative pilot has been featured in many industry publications as well as conferences and has received several award recognitions.

QUOTES

• "Our expansion of the POWER.HOUSE initiative to other areas of the province through partnerships with other electricity distribution companies like Thunder Bay Hydro is the logical next step in our efforts to broaden the use of this technology," explains Maurizio Bevilacqua, PowerStream Board Chair and City of Vaughan Mayor. "It also demonstrates our commitment to providing electricity customers with more energy choices within a sustainability framework that helps to protect the environment."
• "As a progressive, forward-thinking utility, we are seeking to implement technologies that may benefit our customers," says Robert Mace, President, Thunder Bay Hydro. "By entering into this partnership with a like-minded utility, we are able to leverage the experience, lessons learned and proven technology of PowerStream. This puts us several steps ahead of the market to offer our customers different supply options for their electricity service."

BACKGROUND

• POWER.HOUSE recently became the first Canadian-based project, as well as the first offered by an electric utility, to receive an Energy Storage North America Innovation Award in the Distributed Storage Project category.

ABOUT THUNDER BAY HYDRO

Thunder Bay Hydro Corporation is a group of companies serving Thunder Bay and area with electricity distribution, generation and utility services. Thunder Bay Hydro Electricity Distribution Company is responsible for the power line system within the city limits of Thunder Bay and for delivering electricity to the homes and businesses.

ABOUT POWERSTREAM

PowerStream is a community-owned energy company that provides power and related services to more than 380,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario. It is jointly owned by the Cities of Barrie, Markham and Vaughan.

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