HOMER software for energy projects in Canada

First Nations, Inuit, and remote community microgrids — HOMER Pro

Over 200 remote off-grid First Nations and Inuit communities across the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, Northern Ontario, Northern Québec, Labrador, and BC interior rely on diesel generation. Delivered diesel costs in these communities frequently exceed $1.50–$2.50/L, producing LCOE figures of $0.60–$1.20/kWh. The federal Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative, Wah-ila-toos program, and Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities (CERRC) program fund the transition — and HOMER Pro's outputs directly align with the cost, emissions, and technical reporting these programs require.

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities are sovereign nations developing their own energy infrastructure. HOMER Pro has been used by First Nations community energy coordinators, Indigenous-owned energy companies (including those under the umbrella of Indigenous Clean Energy Social Enterprise), and the engineering consultancies serving them. The tool is adapted for community scale: household-level demand data, seasonal load variation, ice-road supply logistics affecting diesel availability, and permafrost site conditions all feed into HOMER Pro's simulation engine.

Territorial operators — NWT Power Corporation (Northwest Territories), Yukon Energy, and Qulliq Energy Corporation (Nunavut) — face the same diesel displacement economics at utility scale. HOMER Pro models hybrid power integration at the community or regional utility level, producing the capital budgeting and long-run cost inputs that territorial energy departments and the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) require for infrastructure financing decisions.

Remote mining and industrial sites — HOMER Pro

Canada's mining sector — gold in Ontario and Québec, diamonds and gold in the Northwest Territories, nickel in Sudbury, base metals in Nunavut, potash in Saskatchewan, oil sands in Alberta — operates some of North America's most complex off-grid and weak-grid power systems. Remote mine sites rely on diesel or natural gas generation; hybrid power integration reduces fuel costs, lowers carbon exposure under TIER (Alberta) or OBPS (federal), and increasingly supports ESG commitments from mining majors including Barrick, Teck, Newmont, and Kinross.

Alberta oil sands SAGD (Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage) operations require continuous high-temperature steam generation with significant on-site power demand. Hybrid power designs combining natural gas cogeneration with renewables and BESS reduce operational emissions against the federal Output-Based Pricing System (OBPS) carbon compliance threshold. HOMER Pro models these industrial hybrid configurations including steam load and process heat interactions.

Utility-scale BESS and grid-connected renewables — HOMER Front

Alberta's AESO Energy Storage market is Canada's most active BESS procurement channel. AESO's energy-only market structure — without a separate capacity market — means BESS revenue depends on energy arbitrage and ancillary services: regulation (AGC), spinning reserve, and supplemental reserve. HOMER Front models BESS dispatch against AESO price and AS clearing data.

Ontario's IESO Long-Term 1 (LT1) RFP awarded over 2.5 GW of capacity contracts in 2023–2024, the majority to BESS projects. The E-LT1 (Expedited LT1) and subsequent procurement rounds are expanding the contracted pipeline further. HOMER Front models LT1 capacity revenue alongside ancillary services participation under IESO market rules.

British Columbia, Québec, and Manitoba offer a distinct modelling challenge: hydro-dominated systems where BESS and wind-plus-storage are valued primarily for their contribution to export market arbitrage, seasonal reservoir management, and load-following rather than simple energy storage. BC Hydro's Call for Power (CFP) 2024 and Hydro-Québec's renewable calls for proposals both target wind-plus-storage configurations. HOMER Front models these hydro-hybrid configurations including reservoir level constraints and cross-border export pricing.

Commercial, industrial, and data centres — HOMER Grid

Behind-the-meter economics in Canada are defined by provincial industrial tariff structures. Ontario's Global Adjustment (GA) — which adds significantly to class B industrial electricity costs — and Alberta's transmission tariffs create meaningful demand charge exposure for large commercial and industrial consumers. HOMER Grid models C&I sites against provincial rate schedules, Class A / Class B classification thresholds in Ontario, and TIER (Alberta) carbon pricing obligations for industrial emitters.

Data centres are drawn to Québec and British Columbia by cheap hydro, cool climates (reducing cooling energy), and low PUE potential. Hydro-Québec actively courts hyperscale data centre clients with dedicated large-scale rate blocks. The federal Clean Electricity ITC (15%) and Clean Technology ITC (30%) for on-site BESS and renewables apply in data centre contexts. HOMER Grid models on-site generation against Hydro-Québec large-power tariffs, BC Hydro Schedule 1223, and Alberta ATCO/ENMAX commercial rate structures.

EV charging infrastructure under the federal Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP) and provincial programs — BC CleanBC, Ontario EV programs, Québec ROULONS ÉLECTRIQUE — is a growing behind-the-meter load that HOMER Grid handles natively.