Ontario’s Municipal Leaders hear from PUC President & CEO Robert Brewer on Community Wide Smart Grid
August 21, 2023 – Members of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) heard from PUC President & CEO, Robert Brewer on the upcoming launch of the Sault Smart Grid, Canada’s first community-wide smart grid, and the radical transition taking place in the energy sector.
Brewer spoke to a packed house on the topic of energy innovation, highlighting the need for municipalities to work with utilities as innovative partners to address the energy transition towards electrification.
Once operational this fall in Sault Ste. Marie & Area, the Sault Smart Grid will result in fewer and dramatically shorter outages, energy savings of 2.7% on average, and a reduction in carbon emissions of 2,900 tonnes annually. The modernized grid will also pay a key role in planning is key to prepare for demands of Electric Vehicles, and other Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like solar panels and battery storage.
Brewer’s message also touched on other innovative and unique projects PUC has underway to enable communities to grow and tackle issues of climate change. Those included the Electric Vehicle (EV) home charger rental program and PUC Transmission LP, an Ontario transmission company that will construct new transmission facilities in Sault Ste. Marie to connect Algoma Steel’s new Electric Arc Furnace Project.
“The electrification transition is in motion. As utilities, we will see more change in the next five years than we have in the previous fifty”, stated Robert Brewer, President & CEO, PUC Services Inc. “We need to recognize that there are so many opportunities for Municipalities and utilities to be aligned and help each other grow and prosper.”
More than 2,000 participants are gathering this week at the annual conference in London, Ontario, where municipal officials will work together on solutions to today’s big challenges, to learn, and to create new opportunities that benefit our communities.
