The village of Inukjuak (~2,000 residents) in northern Québec historically relied on a diesel-only generating station to supply its off-grid electrical system. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and diesel dependence across Hydro-Québec’s remote systems, the Innavik project demonstrates a viable pathway to high renewable penetration using a run-of-river hydroelectric generating station coupled with coordinated load conversion and advanced control.

Prior to integration, the diesel plant (3,758 kW installed across four units) supplied a peak winter load of ~1,800 kW and ~10,000 MWh annually, with heating predominantly oil-fired for efficiency and cost. The community’s initial energy price proposal for hydro purchase was not commercially viable; however, a strategic ~300% rise in electric demand via heating conversion created sufficient revenue to support a power purchase agreement. Hydro-Québec upgraded the medium-voltage grid from 4.2 kV to 25 kV, and the network was segmented into remotely controllable load blocks so the hydro plant could re-energize blocks autonomously without interim diesel support. Commissioning tests confirmed the hydro plant could restore 1 MW feeder loads without crossing underfrequency thresholds (57 Hz) and return to 60 Hz, validating autonomous block restoration under controlled heating curtailment. A new backup diesel plant (two units at 2,867 kW each) was added with design compromises appropriate to its limited use.

A microgrid controller continuously computes the margin between available hydraulic power (AHP) and total village load (TVL), switching heating sources by wireless command from a central cell tower. Electric heating is enabled when AHP–TVL ≥ 300 kW and curtailed back to oil as the margin approaches 200 kW.

To align tariffs with the dual-energy strategy north of the 53rd parallel—where the first 40 kWh/day match main-grid rates and excess consumption is typically priced ~4.5× higher—a special second-tier rate (~$0.19/kWh in 2022) was implemented for Inukjuak. This rate is equivalent to the cost of heating with oil and is indexed annually to CPI.

Since fall 2023, the hydro facility has supplied the majority of Inukjuak’s energy. During an upstream ice jam in early 2024 that sharply reduced available hydraulic power, the system shifted all dual-energy heating to oil, preserving full system supply from hydro alone and avoiding diesel usage. For 2024, ~97% of customer energy was delivered by hydroelectricity.

The Innavik project in Inukjuak is among the first to bring energy transition to fruition, while also contributing to decreasing the use of fossil fuels for residential heating. By converting heating load to dual energy, the project proponent made it possible to increase the hydroelectric demand enough to make the project viable. Finally, the commissioning tests and the results from the first months of operation of the new run-of-river facility demonstrate that it meets expectations.