Located above the 51st parallel in northern Quebec, Uapishka Station is part of the UNESCO Manicouagan-Uapishka World Biosphere Reserve. Its objective is to promote the dynamic occupation of the northern territory in order to structure scientific, socio-professional, community and tourism development. The design and construction of the new station in 2018 was carried out by the TDA Consulting Group. In addition to the objective of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels and the ecological footprint of the site, a permanent ENR laboratory was inaugurated and will be used to optimise innovations in hybrid energy (HE) in an isolated northern environment. To be sustainable and profitable over time, the station will require a complex multi-level control strategy that aims to meet the requirements of the electrical load while respecting environmental and operational constraints.
TDA, in partnership with the Cégep de Sept-Îles and its Inergia research centre specializing in energy intelligence, is conducting research and development work on optimizing the management of hybrid multi-source power flows, an intelligent forecasting system for weather conditions and performance indicators used for the predictive maintenance of HE production sites. The results obtained will have a beneficial impact at the economic level (reduction of maintenance costs, fossil energy costs and GHGs produced) and at the scientific level, which will require the development of algorithms and, potentially, artificial intelligence. This new knowledge will benefit the training of many students in the emerging scientific field.