Powering our Water Treatment Plant

​Our water rates are approved through the City of Edmonton (our regulator) every five years under the Performance Based Regulation (PBR), process, which bases our rates our performance. Our rates for 2017-2021 were approved by City Council in October 2016. In our most recent PBR application, we included a commitment to convert at least 10 percent of our power consumption to renewable sources. The E.L. Smith project will allow us to meet this commitment by generating the necessary amount of energy using solar power.

Building a solar farm at the E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plant (WTP)

• We are proposing to build a solar farm within our existing fenceline at our E.L. Smith Water Treatment Plant (WTP). In doing so, our plan is to create a smart grid, by connecting the solar panels directly to the treatment plant and a battery storage system.
• Together, these elements create a smart grid, capable of generating and storing renewable power close to where it is used.
• This project would not be possible if the solar farm was built at any other location.
• A smart grid will allow us to store energy produced by the solar farm and provide power to the plant during peak periods of electrical demand. This solution will make the E.L. Smith WTP more resilient and better able to serve Edmontonians for years to come.
• Having this smart grid system in Edmonton will make our city a leader in clean energy generation. It will provide unique research and learning opportunities that would otherwise not be available.