Post on 15-Mar-2020
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Best Practices – Remote Microgrid Design
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Alexander Stickler | alexander.stickler@hatch.com
Solar Canada Conference 2018, 20-21 June, Calgary
HATCH: A professional services firmcombining engineering & technicalacumen
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Hatch – Engineering microgrids since 1987
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Electric arc smelting furnaces are a challenge for microgrids and weak local grids: in response, we developed the Hatch SPLC technology for EA
furnaces
No SPLC SPLC On
What is a microgrid?
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Small number of loads (generally behaving as one load)
Generation capacity sized close to total load
Features for control, power quality, reliability
Microgrid
How big can a microgrid be?
‒Mine – 5 - 250 MW
‒Town – 5 - 50MW
‒Village - 1-2 MW
‒ Single load – 10kW – 1MW‒Home‒Critical Infrastructure
‒ Fire station‒ Runway lights‒ Medical clinic‒ Water pumping/treatment
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All of these can be microgrids
Maybe this is a “nanogrid”?
Electrification of 175,000 homes in rural Peru
2017-2018
Hatch MicroGrid control system (HµGrid)
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(This is not a sales pitch for Hatch’s microgrid controller)
Raglan Mine Wind – Energy Storage Project
Currently expanding to 2nd – 3MW turbine
Raglan Microgrid
Courtesy of Tugliq – Photographer Justin Bulota
Opportunities
‒Historically, gensets for microgrids; but, now:‒Solar, wind cost coming down as diesel goes up‒Storage becoming mainstream‒Insulate against fuel price variability
‒Distributed Generation‒ ‘Small’ power as affordable as ‘big’ power ‒Solution to grid modernization needs
‒Hybridization
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• Feasibility & economics of solar + energy storage
• Increase site’s capacity for expanded mine operation
• Restricted electricity supply
• Reduce reliance on diesel generators
• Going forward with further studies and installation plans
http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/musselwhite-mine-on-track-to-improve-productivity.html
Musselwhite Mine: Solar & Storage Feasibility Study
The Case for Remote Hybrids
‒The transition answer ‒We are in the transition century‒“Diesel relief”
‒80/20 rule: high penetration solar, wind, storage by itself is costly
‒Why: must insulate against very low probability events!
‒Example: 3 days of storage that gets used 3 days a year→if 1 day is normal need for storage, then extra 2 days have very poor capital utilization Copyright © Hatch 2016. All Rights Reserved.
Economies of Microgrid Hybridization for Mine Electrification
20-30 hours of
Storage Capacity
10-20 hours of Storage
CapacityLess than 10 hours of Storage Capacity
Source: Dr. Joel Guildbaud, PhD Thesis
Energy storage systems
Hydrogen storage
tanks
ElectrolyserFuel CellsBattery systemFlywheel and
electrical substation
Courtesy of Tugliq – Photographer Justin Bulota
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Energy Stored
Po
we
r o
utp
ut
MW
MW-h
10-3 10-2 10-1 1 10 102 103 104 105
103
102
10
1
10-1
10-2
10-3
1 hour
103 hour
(41 days)
10-3 hour
(3.6 s)
Flywheels
Supercapacitors
Flow
Batteries
CAES
PHS
Electrochemic
al
Batteries
LAES
Many storage choices, but…
16
Battery Technology Trends
‒ Lithium ion, the most common choice‒ >97% of deployments in 2016
‒ Leading lithium-ion suppliers – the big names‒ LG Chem, Samsung SDI, BYD
Tesla (Panasonic)
‒ Other “fast followers”
‒ Other technologies on the radar‒ Sodium Sulfur, NaS (NGK), Zinc Air (Eos)
‒ Flow Batteries: Vanadium, Zinc chemistries(Sumitomo, ViZn)
‒ CAES, LAES
‒Li-ion is now, flow batteries may be the future
Source: Navigant Research Leaderboard Report: Li-Ion Grid Storage (June 2015)
BL
AC
K
&
VE
AT
CH
A
DD
RE
SS
IN
G
NE
ED
S
&
IS
SU
ES
A job for storage: Load shifting, intermittency
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Wind Power Output Load
To manage this scenario, we need storage or dispatchable generation to fill in gaps
Another job for storage: power quality, response
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Storage
‒One size does not fit all‒Continuous events vs. periodic events vs. rare events
‒Short discharge time (seconds) vs. long (minutes, hours)
‒Consider the environment, location ‒ Is this a job for flow batteries, li-ion, pumped storage,
CAES?
‒Costs are moving down – should you wait?
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On the horizon: DC coupled storage
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DC Power
AC Power
Source: Dynapower
DC vs AC Coupled Systems
‒Harvest solar energy that would otherwise be lost
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DC Coupled with DC-DC ConverterAC Coupled with DC-AC Inverters
However, are the economics there yet? Depends on several factors…
U of T Solar DC Microgrid Research Installation
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‒State-of-the-art application of a DC microgrid system
‒Includes: ‒Solar PV
‒Lithium-ion BESS
‒DC load: high-efficiency LED lighting system
• Feasibility study for a clean energy community microgrid
• Energy model & microgrid optimization
• Capital costs analysis
• Revenue streams & savings review
• Financial & operation risk mitigation
• Identify sources of funding, financing & incentives
Clean Energy Community Microgrid, City of Berkeley
• Energy assessment for the Arawak Port, Bahamas
• Potential to:
• Reduce energy costs & grid dependence
• Improve efficiency of back-up generation system
• Recommended solution: Solar farm or solar + storage microgrid
• Ongoing support for:
• Feasibility & integration studies
• Upgrades to existing electrical network
Arawak Port Development, Microgrid Assessment
Considerations in Remote Microgrid Design‒ Why: Deep understanding of needs
‒ Economics, reliability, sustainability
‒ N.b.: Reliability (back-up) may be in conflict with economics…
‒ What: Consider the resource and other opportunities‒ Wind? Solar? Existing gen-sets? Geothermal?
‒ Biomass sources? Industrial offtake nearby?
‒ Demand response? – more degrees of freedom!
‒ How: Model solutions ‒ There is no universal answer; solutions are site-specific
‒ Engineering, simulation and iteration costs less on paper than in the field!!
‒ Stay agnostic to technology
‒ Lots of technology exists (and more is coming)!
‒ How: Get creative with financing! ‒ Project ‘buys’ the fuel up front in the form of PV, wind, storage capex
‒ Grants, PPAs, etc.
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For more information,
please visit www.hatch.com
Thank you!
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