(B07) Microgrids: The Solution to Many Different Problems

The growth of the EV industry has increased the availability and dramatically dropped the cost of lithium-ion batteries, making them a hot topic in building applications. Most designers just think of keeping the lights on when power goes out - when they hear “microgrid”. But as the use of batteries and photovoltaics in buildings continues to grow, different strategies are emerging to combine them into islandable microgrids to serve multiple objectives. This session focuses on a variety of innovative applications using batteries, photovoltaics and microgrids on actual projects, based on the needs of the project and the goals of the owner.
Discussion will include both the technical details of issues to consider when designing microgrids as well as key financial considerations when designing these systems. Examples that will be covered include: Financial Motivations – Commercial and residential projects have used PV-tied batteries solely to reduce utility bills by reducing demand charges, energy rate arbitrage and/or provide ancillary services; this is the simplest and most common application. The team will also discuss practical issues with multifamily, multimeter buildings. Resilience: Microgrids have been optimized to provide power during unplanned outages, multiday fire season shutdowns and natural disasters. Infrastructure Reduction – One creative application for microgrids was a series of projects that avoided costly electrical infrastructure upgrades including upsizing electrical services and replacing switchboards and distribution wiring when new air conditioning equipment was introduced to existing buildings.
Finally, as focus has shifted from energy use to minimizing carbon emissions and utilities and regulators are revising their rules to incentivize onsite consumption of all onsite solar power generation the team will discuss carbon intensity, community solar, solar self-consumption and automated emissions reduction (AER), as well as strategies for EV charging and V2G microgrids.