After the 2013 rail disaster, the City of Lac-Mégantic saw an opportunity to rebuild the downtown area, while integrating renewable energy sources and smart grid technologies to serve the community. At that time, the city retained CIMA+ to prepare a pre-feasibility study, which provided recommendations and defined the steps required to complete such an ambitious project.
In 2018, Hydro-Québec invested in the project and proceeded with the pre-engineering phase. It was decided that the project would consist of a complete microgrid system with islanding capacity. The Lac-Mégantic microgrid project will serve approximately 30 buildings from nearly 2,000 electricity-generating solar panels, and batteries able to store up to 1 MWh of energy. In the fall of 2019, with its local partners STACE and Transelec Common Inc., CIMA+ was awarded the EPC contract for detailed engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the microgrid.