Enel has become the latest big name to spy opportunities in the commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage space in Ontario, Canada, signing an agreement this week for its first project in the region.

Microgrids are about more than novel off-grid systems. They could be the building blocks of the future, flexible, intelligent electricity network. S&C Electric discusses how one early project is helping prove the point.

Earlier this year New York governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled plans for an “energy modernisation initiative that will fundamentally transform the way electricity is distributed and used in New York State”. This will include the creation of a leading energy storage marketplace, argues Bill Radvak, chief executive officer of American Vanadium, whose company recently installed a vanadium flow battery storage system for New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority in Manhattan.