The Energy & Power Innovation Centre (EPIC) provides expertise and facilities to support Canadian companies with their operational challenges with a particular focus on energy and resource management. EPIC also supports utilities and electrical companies with developing new solutions, as well as training in state-of-the-art facilities.
EPIC is also home to the Energy & Power Technology Access Centre (TAC), a national resource for the Canadian manufacturing and agri-food sector. As a TAC, EPIC helps companies who would like to adopt energy technologies that can reduce operating costs throughout the manufacturing process and/or de-risk the implementation of new technologies.
The cross-functional research team - which includes EPIC applied research staff, dedicated co-op students and Engineering Technology Faculty members- works collaboratively with the Sensor Systems and Internet of Things (IoT) Lab, the Centre for Climate Change Management, the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre (AMIC), and the mHealth & eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC).
Interactive Visit Program
Are process inefficiencies creating high utility bills?
Discover our Interactive Visit Program. When you sign up, you’ll get up to 20 hours of advice from our energy experts to identify and document your process inefficiencies, and identify opportunities to reduce or eliminate them
Labs & Equipment
Discover our innovative facilities.
Energy and Power Management Lab
Located at Mohawk's Fennell Campus, this lab allows EPIC researchers, students, faculty members collaborate with industry partners in an open environment.
The lab is equipped with electrical and metering equipment used as part of industry projects; including, power quality analysis meters, data logging systems, P&C relays and related communication units, as well as a control equipment that can interact with an OPAL-RT real-time simulator.
Energy and Power Utilities Lab
The lab, located in a decommissioned substation in Downtown Hamilton, serves as a testing, demonstration, and training facility serving utilities, electrical equipment manufacturers, and consulting companies. Support from Horizon Utilities (now Alectra), Schneider Electric, Omicron, Siemens, and SEL enabled the acquisition and renovation of the former Horizon Utilities' Caroline Street Transformer Station.
Energy and Power Applications Lab
Located at Mohawk's Marshall School of Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship, Stoney Creek Campus, this lab hosts renewable energy equipment configured to operate in on- and off-grid settings. In addition, the lab has a bay access area where industry partners can easily bring equipment for testing and demonstration.
Available energy systems equipment include Chroma Battery and Solar PV Emulators; Chroma programmable load bank; Schneider bi-directional inverters; and resistive, capacitive, and inductive banks.
NetZero Energy Building
The award-winning Joyce Centre for Partnership and Innovation (JCPI) is a large-scale (8,900 m2) Net Zero building that operates as a living lab. In collaboration with industry partners, EPIC develops technology performance projects that utilize the different building sub-systems in order to better inform building developers about high performance buildings. The lab is equipped with a 28 well geothermal system, 500 kWAC solar PV system, 450 litre solar thermal water system and a 228,000 litre rain water harvesting system. For applied research projects, EPIC has access to the wide range of electrical and thermal data acquisition system through the JCPI's Building
Featured Project
NetZero Energy Building
The Joyce Centre for Partnership and Innovation was selected as a Zero Carbon Building Standard pilot project by the Canada Green Building Council. This white paper explores how the building incorporated sustainable building concepts and technologies to become a living lab for NetZero building.
Read more about the JCPI
Featured Project
Enertics Inc.
Enertics Inc. provides asset performance management solutions for electric motors in a wide range of industry sectors. Enertics partnered with Mohawk College to test and validate its new product that can continuously monitor the health of electric motors.
Read more about Enertics
Featured Project
XIERA Technologies Inc.
Xiera asked the Energy and Power Innovation Centre to test and validate their intelligent Fuzzy Logic Controller, aimed to compare the advantages of this technology with traditional control systems.
Read more about Xiera
Featured Project
Gerrie Electric Wholesale Ltd.
Gerrie Electric Wholesale Ltd. is one of the largest vendors of automation equipment in Canada, providing a variety of tested and proven solutions to industry applications. They worked with the Energy and Power Innovation Centre to compare the performance of different energy meters.
Read more about Gerrie
Mariano Arriaga, General Manager, Energy and Power Innovation Centre
As General Manager of the Energy and Power Innovation Centre, Mariano’s role is to support the staff, students and industry partners engaged in applied research projects. Mariano brings a Ph.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, along with a M.Sc. in Renewable Energy from University of Zaragoza and a MA.Sc in Industrial Systems from University of Regina to the EPIC team. Since joining IDEAWORKS, Mariano has worked with dozens of companies on projects as diverse as a Heat Recovery System Automation and Optimization to Testing and Validation of a Health Monitoring and Predictive Diagnostics System for Electric Motors. Mariano has also worked with First Nation communities for several years and continues to collaborate in energy projects; the latest project being a partnership with the Independent First Nations Alliance (IFNA) in a Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) funded project.
mariano.arriaga [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Mariano) 
Laith Al-Musawi, Professor, School of Engineering Technology
Laith is a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering Technology at Mohawk College. He is actively involved in applied research projects with EPIC in diverse topics ranging from power systems, protection and control, industrial control systems and motor testing. Laith also works closely with the food and beverage industry on multiple projects such as upgrading the electrical service for food processing facilities.
laith.al-musawi [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Laith)
Dr. Majlinda Qarri, Professor
Dr. Majlinda Qarri has been teaching at Mohawk College of Applied Arts & Technology as a faculty member for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology department since 2010. Before joining Mohawk, she taught in the Department of Naval, Electrical & Computer Engineering at University of Vlora, Albania for 12 years. She has also lectured at Humber College, Sheridan College, George Brown College and McMaster University. Dr. Qarri’s research collaborations with Ideaworks/EPIC focus on power systems protection and control, substation automation, power quality, and power distribution automation.
majlinda.qarri [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Majlinda)
Patrick McInnis, Technical Lead
Patrick is the key technical support for electrical related projects specialized on protection & control projects at the Energy and Power Utilities Lab (Caroline Substation). Patrick is a graduate from Mohawk College from the electrical skilled trades and technologist program with hands-on experience in substation automation. As part of EPIC, Patrick works directly with industry partners to create testing, demonstration and validation projects that are relevant for our industry partners, as well as mentoring students. Before joining EPIC, Patrick performed system integration at the Toronto Hydro Copeland Transformer station; gaining industrial expertise in SCADA system commissioning; managing and updating communication network information; and inspecting, testing and correcting control wiring.
patrick.mcinnis [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Patrick)
Sofia Guzman, Energy Systems Specialist, EPIC
Sofia leads and supports applied research projects mainly focused on power system's control, modeling and analysis; as well as data system integration. Sofia received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada, and her B.Sc. degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Electrical Engineering from Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Ecuador. She has experience working with system operators (Independent Electricity System Operator of Ontario), transmission companies (Electricity Corporation of Ecuador - Business Unit Transelectric), and several small and medium companies in the electric sector.
sofia.guzman1 [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Sofia)
Gordon Bond, Software Developer, EPIC
He is a graduate of the Software Development program at Mohawk College and has experience working with industry partners to create custom software solutions. With EPIC, Gord works directly with industry partners to plan and develop software based on the specific needs of a project. Recent projects include the Regional Community Energy Plan platform with the Independent First Nations Alliance funded by Natural Resources Canada; as well as energy-related data acquisition and integration platforms.
gordon.bond1 [at] mohawkcollege.ca (Contact Gordon)
Thank you to our funding partners
About IDEAWORKS
The Energy and Power Innovation Centre (EPIC) is part of IDEAWORKS, Mohawk’s active hub of applied research and innovation. IDEAWORKS accelerates Canadian and global innovation by supporting industry access to expert researchers, specialized facilities and world-class technologies.
