Proactively planning for a more electrified future
How one utility company is preparing to meet customers’ growing energy demands while advancing on its net-zero journey
The starting point
Electricity needs are growing across the globe,1 and the thriving seaside city of Saint John is no exception. Here, in the first incorporated city in Canada, leaders are continuously looking to the future and asking “what’s next?”—especially when it comes to how local residents are adopting electricity to power their vehicles, heat their homes, and energize their businessesFor Saint John Energy, the local utility that serves more than 36,000 customers, navigating evolving electricity usage trends has become a priority. Getting sharper insights into how customers are relying on electricity now—and what future usage trends might look like—can provide a foundation for future decision-making and support the utility’s net-zero emissions goal.
For the energy company, the path ahead wasn’t going to be easy. Making reducing carbon emissions a strategic priority would mean significant changes to operations, reallocation of capital to “clean assets,” and the potential for added costs to customers. It would mean overcoming hesitancy by balancing urgency with credibility.
Getting those insights can enable Saint John Energy to anticipate new grid infrastructure needs more precisely as the population grows and as more aspects of life become electrified. Those insights can also enable the utility to work more efficiently and proactively with regulators, its wholesale energy provider, and others in the value chain—to get ahead of growing demands and expectations.
Ultimately, such insights could enable Saint John Energy to be better prepared—to model scenarios based on location, policy, technological evolution, macroeconomics, and other factors, react to evolving energy needs, and ensure that the utility can keep up with customers’ growing appetitive for electricity.
The way forward
To begin building a better strategic view for the future, Saint John Energy selected Deloitte Cananda to provide support for a wide range of needs related to the utility’s Zero30 program—its roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions. Deloitte first helped Saint John Energy get its energy supply and consumption data in order by verifying, validating, and supplementing the information. This enhanced data set provided the foundation for Saint John Energy to use in modeling, forecasting, and strategic planning—enabling the utility to create a virtual replica or digital twin of its entire system, including meters, cables, transformers, and other grid infrastructure components.
As part of the project, Deloitte Canada used its proprietary ElectrifiedGridTM platform to help Saint John Energy conduct a Grid Impact Assessment. ElectrifiedGrid brings together customer and energy asset data to generate critical insights, such as predicting adoption and consumption behaviors in diverse policy and technology scenarios. Using geospatial data, it also can help determine where and when technologies will be adopted, predict the detailed load impacts of technology adoption, and quantify infrastructure impacts.
The Grid Impact Assessment tool, which revealed that the Saint John area could need twice as much electricity by 2050, has become a pivotal resource for helping Saint John Energy plan for its evolution to meet customer demand safely, affordably, and reliably. In addition to the assessment, Deloitte helped Saint John Energy develop a Customer Electrification Roadmap, analyzing a range of solutions and providing the utility with a list of products, services, and steps to consider as it works to minimize emissions in its operations.
Using its proprietary D-Times solution, Deloitte also supported Saint John Energy in creating an Optimal Supply Mix that assesses a range of scenarios and options—such as continuing to purchase electricity while incorporating more renewable energy, and considering local wind projects and distributed energy sources.
A Net-Zero Roadmap was also a key component of the project, with Deloitte outlining potential strategies that could help the utility reduce emissions in the future. For example, the roadmap included recommendations on renewable energy, grid modernization, operations, energy storage, and smart energy products. In supporting Saint John Energy’s vision and plan for its future, Deloitte leveraged the experience and skills of a diverse set of practitioners, including specialties in data science, electrical engineering, user experience design, operational transformation, and corporate strategy.
By working with Deloitte to transform insights and planning capabilities, Saint John Energy has positioned itself to navigate a rapidly evolving future—with greater clarity into needs and possible solutions, as well as increased confidence for taking the next steps in its net-zero journey.
The achievements
Greater visibility into electric consumption and possible future needs
New modeling and simulation capabilities to explore diverse scenarios
Enhanced ability to meet growing demand and rising customer expectations
Increased confidence to support long-term planning for the energy system
A clear path forward on the grid-modernization and net-zero journey—through a prioritized
Opportunities for cost savings and new operational efficiencies in the future
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