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Virtual sandbox will allow real data to be used in simulations, to test prototypes and validate solutions
Published Jun 07, 2026 • Last updated 3 days ago • 3 minute read
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Glen Fillmore, Saint John Energy’s vice-president of strategic growth and transformation, speaks during the utility’s announcement of its new Plug-In Labs virtual environment. Photo by Brice McVicar/Brunswick NewsArticle content
A virtual sandbox spearheaded by Saint John Energy will bring educators and innovators from across the globe to the city, says UNB’s executive director of innovation and entrepreneurship.
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Dhirendra Shukla was one of more than three dozen people on hand Friday as the utility announced the launch of its new innovative, near-real time energy system. Entitled Plug-In Labs, the virtual environment provides safe, secure, and managed access to the utility’s smart grid and system data using a virtual replica of the cityʼs energy grid. It’s in that virtual twin where innovators and researchers can run simulations, test prototypes, and validate solutions in a safe, virtual environment with no impact on the city’s actual grid.
“This playground the Plug-In Labs has created is calling out to all the innovators, people who have interesting and novel ideas and are struggling to find a way to bring them forward. This is your opportunity,” he said. “This means that Saint John Energy is extremely brave, extremely embracive of what is happening in terms of innovation, what is happening in terms of entrepreneurship, what is happening in terms of energy.”
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Shukla said the Plug-In Labs will see innovators flock to the city to make use of the virtual playground to have a better understanding of what their ideas mean in terms of energy and impact of consumption.
The platform, the utility explained in a media release, means innovators anywhere in Canada – and beyond – can access a wide range of utility data and a digital twin of Saint Johnʼs grid. On that grid, models can be run and ideas may be tested with near real-time and historical data. No identifiable customer information is shared, and outside innovators work in a contained environment with no access to Saint John Energyʼs live systems.
Glen Fillmore, Saint John Energyʼs vice-president of strategic growth and transformation, told media following the announcement the virtual grid has been in the works for roughly four years.
“As industry and academia want to test and prove ideas they’ve had to do that with, essentially, fake data. It’s hard to model anything real with something that’s not,” he explained, noting the utility is the first in Canada to create and offer such a tool. “All of the real data that drives Saint John Energy’s electrical system today lives in that effective sandbox and it’s a place where industry and academia are able to safely and securely connect to that data and model it with their own.”
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Dhirendra Shukla, UNB’s executive director of innovation and entrepreneurship, says Saint John Energy’s new virtual sandbox will bring innovators to the city as they test their ideas on the virtual electrical grid using real data. Photo by Brice McVicar/Brunswick News
That is key when it comes to testing ideas and theories, said Jodi Stringer, a dean at NBCC.
“Using fake data is a way to build the models but then in order to test the models to see if we’ve actually programmed things correctly we need to be able to have access to that real data and real time,” she said. “Having access to the real data allows us to calibrate and make those models much more efficient and accurate.”
Stringer said NBCC students will now have experiential learning at their fingertips because of the virtual sandbox but, in turn, Saint John Energy will also benefit from those learnings. As an example, she said, the utility will learn about capacity building and how to balance the grid with renewable energy sources that will be coming online in years and feeding electricity onto that grid.
“They still have to be able to manage their peaks and their lulls so they have to make sure they are bringing in enough power when those microgrids are not producing and then be able to balance it when we are producing and sending it back to the grid,” said Stringer.
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Shukla said the timing for the sandbox couldn’t be better as Canada is now looking at the infrastructure of how energy is delivered and created. As the country thinks about rebuilding its energy infrastructure, tools are needed to assist in that rebuild and Saint John Energy has now put itself in the forefront of helping in that process.
“The entire infrastructure is being looked at,” he said. “We need to innovate and be safe and we need to be thinking about all of those things. You need a place where innovators and unique ideas…. Now, people will sing praises of Saint John Energy and Saint John and New Brunswick and go out and say ‘We did our initial testing and innovation testing right here in Saint John with real data, getting real feedback to build our products and services.’”
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