Smart Grid Fund

The Ontario government created the Smart Grid Fund in 2011, as part of its Long-term Energy Plan of the same year, with an initial funding of $50 million. 

The Smart Grid Fund provides money to test, develop and launch the next generation of technologies that can turn Ontario’s electricity distribution systems into modern, digitally enabled grids.

We funded projects in the following categories:

• proactive consumers - testing tools that households can use to directly manage how they use power (for example, home energy management systems)
• data analytics - powerful software to analyze electricity systems and make them work better
• electric vehicle integration - testing how to charge electric vehicles with minimal impact on electricity grids, while ensuring that owners have enough fuel in the tank
• energy storage - exploring the benefits that energy storage offers when it’s connected to electricity grids and managed by intelligent control systems
• grid automation - using new technologies powered by intelligent software to detect and automatically fix problems on electricity grids
• microgrids - exploring the potential for combining renewable generation, energy storage, and intelligent controls to address system issues or give customers access to cleaner, more reliable power
• building local capacity - creating Ontario-based centres of excellence focused on the domestic and global promotion of smart grid technologies and the local companies that design these technologies

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