The Town of Antigonish in Nova Scotia has reached another milestone towards its goal of becoming a net-zero community as it prepares to channel new federal modernization money into a three-phase town grid replacement project.
On July 2 federal Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser, a Nova Scotian, was in town to announce the government was allocating $9.7 million through the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program (SREPS), representing half of the cost of the municipal grid modernization project.
Antigonish is the only municipality in Canada so far to have received funding under the SREPS program, alongside various other applicants.
Town of Antigonish strategic initiatives co-ordinator Lise Roy explained Antigonish is uniquely positioned to strive for net-zero because it owns its own utility, the Antigonish Electric Utility.
“We’re punching above our weight,” said Roy of the sustainability efforts of the town of close to 5,000.
“The Antigonish Electric Utility will be celebrating 100 years in 2026, so this is an old, established business and revenue source for the town, and they have always recognized the value of that and it’s something that they want to maintain.”
“It allows us energy sovereignty. It allows us to control our destiny, as far as being able to put those benefits back into the community. So it’s an asset that is very valued by council and, I believe, by the citizens as well.”
National flagship project
During the July 2 presentation Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher referred to the plan as a “national flagship project.”
The “Grid Mod” project, as it is often called, will start with the replacement of three substations and three metering points with one modern substation to be built on a one-acre plot of land within a new four-acre property.
The three substations currently serving the town are owned by Nova Scotia Power Utility, while the new substation will be owned by the Antigonish Electric Utility and will consist of two 30/40MVA power transformers, one as back up.
Phase two consists of the construction of new circuits. Once the substation is operational and the pole top and pad mount transformers are in place, a voltage conversion will occur to bring the system up to 25 kilovolts.
The final phase consists of installing smart meters to replace existing ones at 3,000 residential and 500 commercial meter sites in town.
Roy said the grid mod is required to expand capacity as the town grows and its electricity needs become more intense. The town has set a goal to become powered by 80 per cent renewables by 2030; currently about 63 per cent of its energy comes from renewable sources.
A key source of renewable power is the Ellershouse Wind Farm, a Bullfrog Power project which, after a series of expansions, now has 10 Enercon E-92 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 23.5 megawatts. The development partners were the Towns of Antigonish, Berwick and Mahone Bay, members of the Alternative Resource Energy Authority. Berwick and Mahone Bay are also striving to reach net-zero.
The Town of Antigonish is also partnering with St. Francis Xavier University (St. FX) to explore developing a community district energy system that would heat and cool buildings on campus using cleaner energy. St. FX would discontinue its central heating plant and could provide low carbon thermal energy to the community.
Current grid has limitations
Roy explained the grid mod was a necessary step to enable the town to participate in large new electric projects.
When the three communities built solar gardens, Antigonish was restricted to a 1.9-megawatt installation. Recent power outages from failures of the Nova Scotia grid have brought home the urgency of the need for the upgrade, she said — the grid mod will bring a new sense of independence.
“It’s a bit of a mess, in the sense that it goes through wood areas,” Roy said of the current system where one tree crashing into a line can disrupt power. “The reliability by having a new substation is enormous.”
A statement from Abigail Lixfeld, a senior director with Energy and Natural Resources responsible for the SERPS program, said the Town of Antigonish qualified for the funding in part because its grid mod plan was well-developed and “shovel-ready.”
An additional $2.9 billion was announced in Budget 2023 to extend SREPS.
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