Defining the End Game: Customer Ownership and Liberty’s Path to Net Zero

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

Stephanie Bose

Director, Corporate Communications, Liberty Utilities

Customer expectations have branched beyond traditional industries into the utilities sector, and companies are hastening to respond. Rooftop solar, microgrids, battery storage, usage apps and smart-grid capabilities are already part of the here and now. This is just the beginning. Emerging technologies will continue to transform how we think about, use and share the power that fuels so many of our daily needs.

At Liberty, these advancements are informing our plans as we strive for a low-carbon future, and through our regulated and renewables business groups, we’re working closely with our customers and communities to make that transition happen. It Starts With The Grid

“I think of the grid like a vast transportation system,” says Sam McGarrah, Liberty’s Director of System Performance. “You keep the roads updated, install new interchanges, add lanes, and clear any accidents as quickly as possible. The goal is to minimize disruption. In essence, ensure everything flows.”

In recent years, harsher weather events have made it extremely challenging to avoid disruptions to the flow. Major outages due to storms, wildfires and other natural disasters have highlighted the criticality of employing alternative backup energy sources

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

like battery storage derived from both traditional and renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydro. At the grid level, these solutions, combined with smart grid capabilities, can drastically reduce downtimes.

But the need goes deeper than that. Customers want uninterrupted power supply – they expect it, and they also want more visibility so they can better manage their consumption and costs. This new concept of “customer ownership” is one that Liberty is avidly pursuing.

Lindsay Maruncic, Liberty’s Director of Renewable Energy Operations, explains: “Our goal is to find ways to create resiliency for our customers while still driving to Net Zero. One way is to partner with our critical customers and facilities like schools, hospitals and grocery stores and supply them with behind-the-meter batteries to be used when there is an emergency. When those batteries aren’t being used, we could access them for other energy needs.”

For residential customers who invest in battery storage, they can actively view and manage consumption, in real-time. Eventually, this can lead to even more control with the incorporation of predictive capabilities that will allow customers to see, in advance, their daily energy usage patterns, and adjust for optimal efficiency.

This type of thinking – with the customer as an active participant in defining the solutions – is changing utilities’ relationships with their customers, and our interactions with them.

Partnering For Shared Benefits Via Green Solutions

Wind and solar power are perhaps the best-known sources of clean, renewable energy. Algonquin, the parent company of Liberty, built its first wind farm in 2004 in Manitoba, and today has over 4,000 MW of renewable generation in operation. Partnering with major power-purchasers such as Kimberly-Clark, General Mills and JPMorgan Chase, creates a win-win-win scenario for the environment, the local communities, and the companies with their individual ESG targets.

In California, where the drive to zero carbon is spurred by federal goals, Liberty’s customers are already being served by 100% solar power during the day much of the time. For evening and peak times, the 50MW Luning Solar Energy Center – the first of its kind in the state – and the 10MW Turquoise Solar Facility, kick in to help meet the demand.

Liberty’s Manager of Operations in Arizona, Terry Gilbertson, describes how solar installations with a battery backup are offsetting power consumption at the Palm Valley Water Reclamation Facility, helping to reduce the cost of kilowatts while furthering sustainability goals. “The interplay of energy and water is an important one: standard power generation requires a great deal of water. So, finding ways to reduce water consumption in the energy generation and distribution processes is key.”

But augmenting the grid with renewable energy sources is not a one-and-done solution. In fact, our current transmission systems don’t have the capacity to manage all the existing wind, solar and hydro generation, let alone additional megawatts flowing in. So, we must think even bigger.

Energy Interdependence and the Potential of Hydrogen

One of the newer kids on the block in the renewables game, hydrogen, presents potential opportunities for energy and redundancy. Hydrogen technologies can act like a shortcut by providing customers with the power they need without building more transmission lines. Trish Walker, Liberty’s Director of Business Development, calls hydrogen “the Swiss army knife of renewable fuel” as it links electricity, natural gas, water and wastewater operations.

As Trish notes, green hydrogen can be used to completely decarbonize a building’s use of heat and power through wind, solar and hydro sources. In comparison to traditional battery storage, hydrogen fuel cells are lighter and easier to use, and can be adapted to existing systems. For example, hydrogen-adaptive turbines can be used to create redundancy for when the wind isn’t blowing. Or, when there is excess demand on the grid, energy stored in hydrogen form can be tapped.

For Liberty, hydrogen is a technology that we are currently investigating. For industries that cannot decarbonize, or where decarbonization is seriously hampered by the nature of their operations, hydrogen may prove to be one of the keys that unlocks that door.

Electricity Canada: The Grid 2022

Beyond Emissions Reduction

Meeting corporate Net Zero goals will take more than new technologies. Workforce projections have shown that by 2050 there will be roles that we can’t even envision today – roles that will be critical in getting us to and supporting a low-carbon economy. How can anyone plan with such unknowns?

Kirsten Olsen, Liberty’s Chief Human Resources Officer, says, “To prepare for the future now, we need to think more broadly than traditional skillsets and use different talent strategies. Core skills such as engineering and business acumen will remain important, but even more critical will be the ability to pivot quickly to address a difficult situation, and to do so with an entrepreneurial attitude. It will be less about formal education and more about adaptability, mindset.”

Liberty’s closure of its Asbury Coal Plant in the U.S. Mid-West and completion of approximately 600 MW of new wind generation shows that thinking in action. The plant closure reduced emissions by nearly one million metric tonnes and increased local economic development. With the company’s guiding principles of continuous learning and entrepreneurial spirit leading the planning, the Asbury plant retirement and transition to wind power provided an ideal opportunity to test the team’s ability to adapt and excel.

“Fundamentally, our Net Zero strategy is to continue to deploy existing technologies like converting to renewable generation where possible, while exploring new solutions that are a bit further down the road,” notes Ariel Bautista, Liberty’s Director of Sustainability. Finding the “Sweet Spot”

Ultimately, our energy future hinges on finding the connection point between what customers want, what’s good for the environment, and what’s sustainable for companies with shareholder and Net Zero commitments – the sweet spot of experience, efficiency and value.

For example, if a utility customer installs battery backup and rooftop solar in their home, although this is a step in the right direction, this will change their service needs and relationship with their utility, which poses new challenges. How do we work together to ensure everyone’s investment is maximized, and we don’t spend double on that same energy usage? How do we optimize this much bigger energy network? How do we incorporate new solutions within our current infrastructure to yield the best from both? How do we ensure that individuals who cannot afford rooftop solar are not negatively impacted?

As our energy sources continue to evolve and new ones emerge, more questions will surface. By actively engaging our customers in these discussions, and co-creating the path to a greener future, reaching our goal of a low-carbon economy is far more attainable. As Kirsten Olsen notes, “The path has yet to be defined – we need people with a passion for finding solutions to figure this out with us. The power truly is in all our hands.”