The agreement forms part of the company’s commitment to invest up to C$2.5m ($2.4m) into academic research projects in New Brunswick province in the next five years in the form of funds, in-kind contributions, including software and equipment, and sponsorships and human resources.
Scheduled to be led by UNB’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the projects will focus on two smart grid technology and implementation;elements, including residential demand response and load shifting.
Siemens Canada president and CEO Robert Hardt said, ”We believe that educational investments and resulting research activities will further the creation of a skilled workforce capable of developing global smart grid solutions, and that this in turn will bring significant benefits to the energy and related economic sectors of New Brunswick.”
University of New Brunswick Research vice president Dr. David Burns said, ”This partnership is a great model of how a university can work collectively with industry to cre-ate win-win outcomes.”
Specifically demand response (DR) programs seek to decrease electricity consumption or shift it from on-peak to off-peak periods depending on consumers’ preferences and lifestyles.
The load shifting is a strategy that attempts to shift electricity demand so as to decrease power consumption during expensive peak times.
Besides assembling teams for the two projects, Siemens and UNB are also developing proposals for funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
