The city of Summerside on Price Edward Island in Canada has installed North America’s first end-to-end AI-optimised smart grid using technology from Ontario-based BluWave-ai and Microsoft Azure.

This is a scalable system applicable to entire states and countries for moving their energy networks towards increased use of renewable assets. While world leaders gathered for COP26 in Glasgow to discuss the climate crisis, BluWave-ai has been applying technology in real time for over two years at Summerside Electric Utility under its living lab programme, driving the global energy transition and the path to net zero.

The company has started streaming commands for controlling battery storage, completing the smart grid offering. The commands are based on solar models for the local PV array, building on previously live wind and load AI models operationalised over the past two years. The AI platform is now ready to onboard an additional 20MW solar and 20MWh of battery storage in 2022.

“In 2019, our utility ran North America’s first AI-enabled energy dispatch,” said Basil Stewart, mayor of Summerside. “This year, as the world congregated for planning at COP26 to talk mitigating the climate crisis and global energy transition, Summerside with BluWave-ai has been leading implementation. We invested early in wind, solar and storage. Our investment in adopting artificial intelligence with BluWave-ai has completed the full smart grid in our community, country and continent and during the last two years we removed over 64 million kilograms of carbon from our energy usage thanks to our industry-leading smart grid.”

BluWave-ai edge and centre products are running around the clock on the Microsoft Azurecloud platform, leveraging the data from Summerside’s existing hardware. This optimises all of the key elements of the Summerside smart grid: wind turbines, solar panels, diesel generation backup, controllable loads, utility scale storage and upper-grid connection to an independent local producer of wind energy source. The software continuously samples the electricity network to understand the generation and consumption patterns from all these assets, provisioning energy to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of Summerside’s operations.

“SDTC is proud to see BluWave-ai’s AI smart grid technology is now live and operational,” said Leah Lawrence, president of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). “It is great to see this made in Canada solution deployed here at home, using AI to best use energy generated when the wind blows and sun shines and offset carbon emitting energy intelligently.”

Devashish Paul, CEO of BluWave-ai, added: “Working with Summerside and operationalising our AI software on all grid hardware proved the BluWave-ai application in our home market. This has led to winning customers around the world in India, the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States. BluWave-ai smart grid and EV fleet products are now operational globally and have been operating around the clock during the pandemic enabling our customers to reduce their supplied cost of energy and offset millions of kilograms of carbon.”

Summerside has created an environment in which local and international brands can access an experienced workforce, world-class infrastructure, and a supportive and engaging business community, along with pro-business government support. Underpinned by investments in low-carbon energy and technological innovation, Summerside’s latest developer opportunities are said to be founded on solid and secure RoI principles.

BluWave-ai is focused on driving the proliferation of renewable energy and electric transportation worldwide. Its products apply artificial intelligence to optimise the cost, availability and reliability of different energy sources, both renewable and non-renewable, in real time. This helps communities, corporations and utilities improve their energy decisions for sustainability, reliability and affordability.