Dive Brief:
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Alectra Energy Solutions and AMP plan to form a strategic relationship to develop large-scale energy storage solutions for commercial and industrial and institutional customers in Ontario.
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The Canadian utility and storage provider plan to develop a portfolio of distributed on-site assets aimed at reducing power costs for C&I customers and enhancing resiliancy.
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Alectra, which serves nearly 1 million customers in Ontario, will bring its utility experience to the partnership while AMP, which has developed over 520 MW of distributed generation resources, brings its asset management experience.
Dive Insight:
Alectra's announcement comes as an increasing number of utilities move into the distributed energy space, forming partnerships or acquiring DER providers to enhance offerings to consumers, particularly C&I customers.
Southern Co., for instance, acquired DER and efficiency provider PowerSecure last year, and the company recently formed a partnership with Advanced Microgrid Solutions to deploy behind-the-meter storage for large customers.
Alectra, the second largest municipal utility in North America, has already begun to explore combining energy storage with rooftop solar panels through its Power.House pilot program. The program aggregates residential solar-plus-storage installations to create a virtual power plant.
The company, with AMP, is now looking at providing energy storage for the C&I market in Ontario.
AMP’s skill set includes asset development, project and structured finance, commodity trading, risk management, and engineering. The company, founded in 2009, developed projects in Canada, India, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K.
Earlier this month, AMP acquired a 14.7 MW solar plant in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The output from the solar plant is being sold to Tohoku Electric Power under a 20-year contract.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Alectra is the second largest, not third largest, municipal utility in North America.
