Following the call for projects launched in October 2020, over 30 submissions from a broad range of Canadian energy system modellers have been received, demonstrating the sectoral diversity of the community.
Outcomes will be presented over a series of online sessions.
Thematics
The thematics for the project must relate to the transformation of the electricity sector and its contribution to decarbonization of Canada’s economy, either directly (electricity production, transmission, distribution and management), indirectly (electricity usage, current or potential, in any given sector), or from a systemic standpoint (e.g. techno-economic and environmental analysis of the impacts of electrification), at any given scale (national, provincial, territorial, regional or municipal).
Selected projects
After the selection committee evaluated all the projects, 15 of them were selected for funding. Two additional projects are not eligible for funding but have participated on a voluntary basis.
| Project | Team | Organization |
| An open-access standardized dataset for decarbonizing Canada’s energy system | Dr. Madeleine McPherson, Dr. Juha Kiviluoma, Dr. Jakub Jurasz, Richard M. Hendriks | Sustainable Energy Systems Integration and Transitions (SESIT) Group at the University of Victoria, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland / University College Dublin, AGH University (Poland), University of Toronto |
| Electricity and renewable gas energy system alternatives for fossil fuel substitution in British Columbia | Dr. Kevin Palmer-Wilson, Dr. Andrew Rowe, Dr. Peter Wild | University of Victoria |
| Exploring the near-optimal solution space of an energy system optimization model to explore similarly costly but techno-economically diverse decarbonization pathways for Western Canada | Cameron Wade, Dr. Peter Wild, Dr. Andrew Rowe | University of Victoria |
| Pathways towards Regina’s 100% renewable energy by 2050 target through integrated energy supply and demand modelling | Robert Xu, Lauren Stanislaw, Madeleine Seatle, Madeleine McPherson | Sustainable Energy Systems Integration and Transition (SESIT) group at the University of Victoria |
| Leveraging open source tools to produce scenario explorer for Canadian energy system transition | Mohammad Miri, Muhammad Awais, Dr. Madeleine McPherson | University of Victoria, International Institut of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (Austria) |
| Application of the CityInSight model to evaluate the implications of deep decarbonisation pathways for electricity grids | Yuill Herbert, Ralph Torrie, Marcus Williams | Sustainability Solutions Group, WhatIf? Technologies |
| BC Nexus Model: Impacts of electrification on land and water resources through 2050 | Dr. Nastaran Airanpoo, Dr. Andrew Wright, Dr. Taco Niet | SFU School of Sustainable Energy Engineering |
| Power to Gas to Enable Renewable Resources in Canada | Sina Motalebi, Dr. Andrew Wright, Dr. Taco Niet | SFU School of Sustainable Energy Engineering |
| Examining the Value of the Site C megaproject using a Linear Programming Model of Western Canadian Electricity infrastructure and generation with endogenous investment | Dr.
Kent Fellows, Dr. Nic Rivers, Dr. Brett Dolter Jessika Anderson – Donor Relations Advisor | Canadian Northern Corridor research program at The School of Public Policy – University of Calgary, University of Ottawa, University of Regina |
| Exploring Failure and Success Conditions of Canadian Energy Policy with an Integrated Energy-Emissions Model | Jason R. Wang, Patrick Steinmann | Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands) |
| Electrification of Canadian Northern Communities, Using Low Emission Micro-grids | Dr. Claudio Cañizares, Dr.Mehrdad Pirnia, Enrique Vera. | University of Waterloo |
| Modeling demand-side low-carbon innovations and their potential to impact on socio-technical energy systems | Dr. Christina Hoicka, Dr. Runa Das, Dr. Jenny Lieu, Yuxu Zhao, Maria-Louise McMaster | York University, Royal Roads University |
| Role of Hydrogen Supply-side Pathways in GHG Mitigation in Canada* | Robin White, Thuo Kossa, Harris Berton, Michael Brophy, Daniel Del Carpio, Alex Dragan-Gojkovic, Bruce Fraser, Aaron Hoskin, Zekarias Kedida, Jean-Sébastien Landry, Rami Mahmoud, Glasha Obrekht, Amber Robson, Allan Tomas | Direction générale de l’analyse économique Environnement et Changement climatique Canada / Gouvernement du Canada |
| Electrification and deep decarbonization of Canada’s energy system with electricity prosumers | Dr. Elizaveta Kuznetsova and Pr Miguel F. Anjos | Group for Research and Decision Analysis (GERAD) & Polytechnique Montreal, University of Edinburgh (U.K.) |
| Simulation de la technologie « e-highway » (autoroute électrique à caténaire) pour la décarbonisation du transport lourd sur l’axe A20-H401 | Clara Kayser-Bril, Johanne Whitmore, Dr. Normand Mousseau, Ramata Ba, Ashok Kinjarapu | CPCS, HEC Montréal, l’Université de Montréal |
| A comprehensive method for the energy and emissions assessment of future mobility scenarios | Pr. Francesco Ciari, Dr. Ouassim Manout, Arsham Bakhtiari | Polytechnique Montréal |
| Open and common approaches for evaluating marginal emission factors: a case study of the Alberta electric grid* | Véronique Delisle, Dave Turcotte, Sophie Pelland, Vahid Raissi Dehkordi, Indrajit Das, Matthew Hansen, Mantaj Hundal, Farid Bensebaa | CanmetENERGY – Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Energy Regulator, National Research Council |
* Project not eligible for funding but participating on a voluntary basis.
Next step
By March 19, 2021, the selected teams will prepare a full report describing their model, results and contributions.
