Energy Hub Management System (EHMS)

Enabling and empowering energy managers through increased information and control

The purpose of this project is to develop and to implement an energy hub management system that will allow static energy users to manage effectively their energy requirements.

More specifically, this project will empower energy hubs – that is, individual locations that require energy (e.g., manufacturing facilities, farms, retail stores, detached houses) – so that they can contribute to the development of a sustainable society through the real-time management of their energy demand, production, storage and resulting import or export of energy.

The energy hub management system is funded by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and industry partners (as listed below) in the amount of $2.45 million over a five-year study period which began in April 2008. Led by the University of Waterloo, project participants include Hydro One Networks Incorporated (Toronto), Energent Incorporated (Waterloo), Milton Hydro Distribution Incorporated (Milton) and the Ontario Power Authority.

Additionally, the energy hub management system project wishes to gratefully acknowledge the support of SafePlug, Simple Home Net, Tetra Tech and Computerized Electricity Systems (CES) in the development of pilots for the project.

Project news and updates

January, 2013

October, 2012

  • Some team members gathered at a pilot participant's home in Milton, Ontario to discuss the project.
Frank Lasowksi, Gord Ellis, Ian Rowlands, and Deep Mehta in front of a house.

Left to right: Frank Lasowksi (President and CEO, Milton Hydro), Gord Ellis (CTO, Energent), Ian Rowlands (Professor, University of Waterloo), and Deep Mehta (Milton homeowner).

August, 2012

June, 2012

May, 2012

March, 2012

February, 2012

December, 2011

September, 2011

August, 2011

July, 2011

  • Mohammad Chehreghani Bozchalui, a PhD student in Electrical and Computing Engineering on the project, received a Student Award from Mprime – Canada’s only Network of Centres of Excellence for the mathematical sciences, which brings together academia, industry and the public sector to develop cutting edge mathematical tools vital to the knowledge-based economy. Mohammad will receive his award at the 7th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) 2011 in Vancouver on 21 July 2011. Congratulations, Mohammad!

June, 2011

May, 2011

April, 2011

  • Energent CEO, Chris Reid, has published an article entitled 'Lessons from smart grid pilot in Canada can be applied to New England', in which he references the Energy Hub Management System project.
  • The posters that Mohammed Chehreghani (July 2009) and Sumit Paudyal (July 2010) presented are now available on-line. Go to the respective dates, below, and click where indicated.

March, 2011

  • Eric Mallia – a second year Master's student in Environment and Resource Studies at UWaterloo working on the project – won the award for best poster at the University of Waterloo’s 3rd Annual Student Colloquium on Climate Change. Held on 10 and 11 March 2011, Eric’s poster was entitled ‘Exploring Home Electricity Management Strategies as a Climate Change Mitigation Option’. Find out more information about the Colloquium.

October, 2010

July, 2010

  • Sumit Paudyal presented some of his work at the IEEE-PES General Meeting (Minneapolis, MN, July 2010). View Sumit's poster (.pdf).

June, 2010

  • Christina Hoicka presented a poster entitled '"Smart" Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Consumers in Smart Grids: Identifying Models of Information Use and Communication' at the UKERC PhD summer school (University of Warwick, UK, June 2010).

May, 2010

November, 2009

  • Mary Beth Deline presented a poster (co-authored with Ian Rowlands) entitled ‘Keeping Up With the Joneses - Energy Consumption, Publicity and Social Network Influence‘ at the 2009 Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Conference (Washington, DC, November 2009).

October, 2009

  • Energent, one of the industry partners to the EHMS project, is profiled in the OCE Annual Report (page 29).

September 10, 2009

  • Energy Hub partners are profiled in The Kitchener-Waterloo Record.

July, 2009

June, 2009

  • The project is mentioned again on pages 30 and 32 of the IPPSO FACTO magazine in an article called "Energy Management Hubs".
  • View an online version of the article, which is listed near the bottom of the page.

May 12, 2009

  • A number of faculty and students who are on the EHMS project had a booth set up at OCE Discovery '09. For more information about the event which was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from May 11-12, 2009 please follow the OCE Discovery link.
  • You can also view the posters that we displayed at OCE Discovery by following these links:

March, 2009

  • The project was also mentioned in the 2009 edition of Watch, a magazine published by the University of Waterloo Research and Technology Park, on pages 12-13. View the article (.pdf).

February, 2009

October 14, 2008

  • Professor Ian Rowlands from UWaterloo and David Curtis from Hydro One made a presentation about the Energy Hub Management System Project. View this presentation (.pdf).

February 11, 2008

Project contact

Ian H. Rowlands
Professor, Environment, Resources & Sustainability
Faculty of Environment
University of Waterloo

Project partners

University of Waterloo Key contacts:

  • Professor Ian Rowlands (lead), Faculty of Environment
  • Professor Claudio Cañizares, Faculty of Engineering
  • Professor Kankar Bhattacharya, Faculty of Engineering
  • Professor Paul Parker, Faculty of Environment
Energent Inc.

Energent Incorporated is a Waterloo-based technology firm leveraging the internet and mathematical modeling technologies to lower the energy costs of its clients. Located in the Waterloo Research Technology Park, Energent provides industrial, institutional, and commercial clients with customized energy management solutions.

milton hydro

Milton Hydro Distribution Inc. is a local distribution company, which is responsible for distributing electricity to more than 23,000 business and residential customers within the Town of Milton.

Milton Hydro Distribution Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Milton Hydro Holdings Inc., owned by the Town of Milton. Milton Hydro has been providing safe, reliable, and affordable electricity service for nearly a century.

Ontario Power Authority logo

The Ontario Power Authority's vision is a sustainable, competitive and reliable electricity system for the benefit of Ontario consumers. The organisation will balance the short-term and long-term needs of electricity users while developing a reliable and sustainable electricity system for their benefit. The Ontario Power Authority contributes to the development of a reliable and sustainable electricity system for the benefit of Ontario customers. In doing so, we plan for the long term and procure and coordinate conservation and electricity supply from diverse resources. (The OPA wordmark and the phrase Ontario Power Authority are Official Marks owned by the Ontario Power Authority.)

Hydro One logo.

Hydro One Networks Inc. delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario. Hydro One serves over 1.3 million customers on its distribution system, which spans about 75% of Ontario. Hydro Ones transmission system supplies electricity either directly or indirectly to more than 4 million customers and represents more than 96% of Ontarios transmission capacity. The company is wholly owned by the Government of Ontario.

ontario centres of excellence

The Ontario Centre of Excellence for Energy was created in response to the significant challenges and opportunities posed by the current energy situation in Ontario. The Centre invests in and promotes cutting-edge research collaborations between industry and colleges, universities and research hospitals. In this way, we foster innovation in energy markets, systems and technologies.