A company wants to construct a hydrogen peaking plant in Owen Sound.
City council at its meeting Monday passed a municipal support resolution for Public Energy’s proposal for a new long-term capacity services project in Owen Sound that would “create and store clean hydrogen to meet peak energy demand using a hydrogen-powered turbine.”
The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) is the approval authority for the project. And councillors were told the municipal support resolution won’t bypass the city’s normal approvals process. If the Public Energy peaker plant in Owen Sound is selected by the IESO to proceed, it will go through the city’s regular development and planning process as well.
Councillors heard the peaker plant would draw energy from the grid during periods of low demand overnight to generate hydrogen, which would be stored on-site and then be used to power turbines to feed back energy onto the grid at peak demand.
“This would potentially be a first-of-its-kind project for North America,” Owen Sound’s Senior Advisor, External Relations and Investment Attraction Rebecca Ellerdiem told councillors.
The new peaker plant is proposed on a vacant industrial lot on 20th Street East, just north of the local headquarters for hydrogen industry participant Hydrogen Optimized — which is located in the former Tenneco plant.
It’s expected to create around 400 jobs during construction, and 20 full-time positions when operational.
“I think it’s an excellent project,” says Owen Sound Coun. Suneet Kukreja. “(It’s) in alignment with some of the strategic vision the City of Owen Sound has. No. 1, it’s clean energy advancement. This project I feel when I read the report, has the capacity to put Owen Sound as one of the leaders in this.”
The IESO plans to run multiple request for proposals windows over the next few years, according to its website, to procure resource to meet system needs.