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With $200 million in financing from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, San Francisco-based Stem Inc. announced Tuesday that it is moving into Ontario to help ease the pain of high power rates.

Stem provides battery systems to large industrial and commercial customers, but CEO John Carrington said power storage is the least interesting part of the business.

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“Batteries on their own are not intelligent, they really have limited use-case, other than maybe backup power,” he said. “But with our (artificial intelligence) software, we can implement a variety of different solutions for our customers, for the utilities and for the grid operators.”

This can be particularly useful in Ontario, where the Global Adjustment charges mean that off-peak power rates can be less than half the cost of electricity during peak periods.

“We have been looking at the market for probably 18 months, and it’s an interesting opportunity because you have these Global Adjustment charges that drive pretty heavy energy bills, depending on the size of the company,” Carrington said.