Research and development of a microgrid control and monitoring system for the remote community of Bella Coola: Challenges, solutions, achievements and lessons learned

Reliance on costly and polluting diesel generators is a major difficulty common to almost all the remote off-grid communities. However, there are oftentimes opportunities to replace at least a part of it with clean renewable energy. This can be achieved by incorporating appropriate energy storage technologies for shifting the energy as well as smart control and monitoring systems. Bella Coola in British Columbia has been the first remote community in Canada that initiated the replacement of a part of its diesel consumption with clean energy. This paper attempts to describe the technical challenges in Bella Coola, proposed solutions with emphasis on the control and monitoring part, a summary of open and closed-loop tests, and the lessons learned from this microgrid project that can be inspiring for future projects.