Understanding Energy 

ICCC's Hard Hats Tour of

PowerStream  

The Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce’s (ICCC) energy committee led by Pappur Shankar, Director, Energy and Mining, organized on 9 September 2016 a behind the scenes tour of PowerStream as part of the Chamber’s Hard Hats Tour series.

PowerStream, based in Vaughan, is a community-owned energy company providing power and related services to more than 380,000 customers residing or owning a business in communities located immediately north of Toronto and in Central Ontario.

It serves communities in Alliston, Aurora, Barrie, Beeton, Bradford West Gwillimbury, Markham, Penetanguishene, Richmond Hill, Thornton, Tottenham and Vaughan as well as Collingwood, Stayner, Creemore and Thornbury through a partnership with the Town of Collingwood in the ownership of Collus PowerStream.

ICCC’s Hard Hats Tour Series is an innovative learning opportunity whereby attendees are given a privileged “behind the scenes” tour of a successful business enterprise. Principals of a variety of participating businesses host the tours and provide insight into establishing and managing a successful business.

Ms. Neetika Sathe, ‎Vice President, Corporate Development at PowerStream Inc. briefed the ICCC members about the Power Stream's Microgrid Demonstration Project that marks the next phase in the company’s aim of supporting Smart Grid development at the provincial level and raising awareness for the need to leverage innovative smart technologies in Ontario's electricity sector.

Mr. Shuvo Chowdhury, Project Manager, Micro Grid System at Power Stream gives a detailed demonstration of the project. He shows how the project will be cost effective in the long run as compare to the old power generation systems. He said that this is a new concept and it will take some time for the people to understand the concept and mass production of equipment in future. 

Power Stream started in the field of microgrids by commissioning its first microgrid at its head office in Vaughan in 2013. This pilot project led to the development of sophisticated and world-class microgrid deployments in its service territory through 2015 and 2016. Making the power grid more resilient, efficient and reliable through the development, deployment and commercialization of new and innovative technologies has always been one of PowerStream's key objectives. One of those technologies is microgrids. 

Mr. Shankar said that this technology can be  used in countries like India where the rural areas can be benefited. This technical knowledge can also be a boon for the urban centres especially for new smart cities. He thanked Mr. Nani Pradeepan, Energy Committee Member and the Power Stream for organizing the Hard Hat Tour. He said that Power Stream has always been at the forefront of smart grid technologies.