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North America / Commercial & demonstration

Burlington DC Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations6
System facts21
Sources reviewed7
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

ARDA Power's industrial DC microgrid demonstration in Burlington, Ontario, used a bipolar 380 V DC platform to integrate 16 kW of solar, a 10 kW natural-gas generator, a 20 kW/100 kWh vanadium-redox flow battery, grid service, and DC/AC loads. The battery converter regulated the DC bus while distributed source and load controls coordinated without relying on a central real-time communications link.

Research status
Demonstration commissioned around 2017. ARDA still lists the Burlington C&I deployment on its project page, but no public source verifies current operation or performance through 2026.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
43.30938, -79.85322
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Burlington DC Microgrid?

6 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

ARDA

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

ARDA Power

Microgrid developer, integrator, and supplier of the battery-centric DC platform and power converters [3][4][5]

Organization

Etratech

Burlington industrial host identified in project literature [6][7]

Organization

Gentherm

Acquired host company Etratech in November 2017 and continued operations at its Burlington headquarters [7]

Organization

Gildemeister Energy Storage GmbH

Supplier of the CellCube vanadium-redox flow battery and interface-development partner [5]

Organization

Sustainable Development Technology Canada

Provided a $400,000 grant for the DC microgrid demonstration [5]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
16 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel
10 [1]
Storage
20kW/100kWh [1]
Photovoltaic capacity
16 kW total, configured as two 8 kW arrays [6]
Flow-battery rating
20 kW / 100 kWh vanadium-redox flow battery (5-hour duration) [5][6]
Natural-gas generator
10 kW [6]
DC bus
Bipolar +/-380 V DC [6]
Energy mix
16 kW solar as the renewable source, 10 kW natural gas for dispatchable backup, utility-grid supply, and 20 kW/100 kWh flow-battery storage [5][6]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Flow battery

Gildemeister Energy Storage GmbH — CellCube

20 kW/100 kWh vanadium-redox flow-battery system [5]

02

Battery converter

ARDA Power

Bidirectional DC/DC converter that exclusively regulates DC-bus voltage in the battery-centric architecture [3][5]

03

Solar converters

ARDA Power

Unidirectional MPPT DC/DC interfaces for the two photovoltaic arrays [6]

04

Demonstration loads

Model not publicly disclosed

A 230 W LED fixture replacing a 400 W metal-halide fixture, an 18,000 BTU air conditioner, and a 48 V mini-refrigerator were among documented controllable loads [6]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Storage

    At the heart of the Microgrid is a vanadium redoxflow battery supplied by GILDEMEISTER energy storage GmbH. [1]

  • Storage

    The battery is connected to the DC bus by built-in ARDA Battery DC-DC Converters. [1]

  • Storage

    ​The Energy Storage system maintains the DC bus voltage and controls the Energy Management function of the Microgrid. [1]

  • Generation

    The distributed generation components linked to the DC bus will include 16KW of solar and 10KW of gas generation. [1]

  • Generation

    Both Sources will be integrated into the DC Microgrid using the ARDA Source DC-DC Converters, which in the case of Solar include maximum power point tracking (MPPT) . [1]

  • Control architecture

    The battery energy-storage converter forms and regulates the DC bus. Sources and loads respond locally to bus voltage, allowing real-time coordination without communications; supervisory communications are used for optimization, monitoring, and data collection. [3]

  • Grid transition

    ARDA describes the platform as capable of seamless transition between grid-connected and islanded operation, with the battery remaining the bus-voltage reference in both modes. [3]

  • Load management

    A PLC could shed or dim loads based on system conditions while bidirectional interfaces supported AC and DC loads on the common bus. [6]

  • Corporate update

    Gentherm acquired Etratech in November 2017 and said it would continue operations at the Burlington headquarters; this establishes a host ownership change, not the microgrid's current operating status. [7]

Provenance

7 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    ARDA Power

    ardapower.com · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  3. [3]
    DC Microgrid Platform

    ARDA Power · Primary source

  4. [4]
    ARDA Power Projects

    ARDA Power · Primary source

  5. [5]
  6. [6]
  7. [7]

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