Optimal Energy Management of Sustainable Greenhouses in Smart Grid

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Canada's commitment to addressing climate change through a transition to a more sustainable and diversified economy rests on the shoulders of some of its biggest stakeholders including the ones in agribusiness. Technological advancements in controlled environment agriculture has led to the rise of large-scale greenhouse operations and the capacity to provide year-round local supplies of fresh produce, ornamentals, trees, and cannabis. Although the scale of these greenhouses and dramatic improvements in the thermodynamic performance of equipment and envelope designs have led to greater capital and energy efficiency, the industry faces significant challenges related to escalating energy costs, and indeterminate or low market prices caused by import competition and large retailers. In an effort to reduce energy costs, sustainable greenhouse operations will need to integrate renewable/alternative sources of energy in addition to storage capacity. This presents two distinct challenges or opportunities: intelligent optimization of behind-the-meter energy resources and the operation of an interactive distribution-connected greenhouse energy system in a transactive power grid era. In order to seize this opportunity, we will develop the theoretical foundations forming DRAX ISO - Pomphrey Industries Corporation's first artificial energy intelligence for exploring and exploiting the critical multi-dimensional process flows of a large-scale greenhouse operation in a smart grid, to derive and test new revenue streams through the participation of its energy resources in current and proposed ancillary markets. In recent years, greenhouses have been considered as ancillary service providers to maintain operational performance and resiliency of the power grid, due to their significant power generation capacity and load demand. Intelligent energy management schemes and the technological capabilities for greenhouse operations in ancillary service markets (e.g., for voltage regulation, frequency regulation, and harmonic mitigation) will be analyzed, modelled and embedded for pilot by our industry partner at a 6,000 sqm greenhouse facility located in Alberta, Canada.