SAN DIEGO, June 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In late May, San
Diego Gas & Electric's (SDG&E) Microgrid powered the entire
community of Borrego Springs
during planned grid maintenance, thus avoiding major service
interruptions to customers. In addition to onsite generation and
energy storage systems, SDG&E used NRG Energy's nearby
26-megawatt (MW) Borrego Solar facility to supply electricity to
all 2,800 customers in the area. This solution is believed to be
the first time in the nation that a microgrid has leveraged
renewable energy to power an entire community.
"SDG&E demonstrated in a real-world situation how we can use
innovative technology to create a more resilient and sustainable
grid for our customers," said Dave
Geier, SDG&E's vice president of electric transmission
and system engineering. "Borrego
Springs was entirely separated from the main grid, running
on the Microgrid's local onsite resources for nine hours as we
conducted necessary maintenance. This ability to operate
independently of the grid when necessary is exactly what the
Microgrid was designed for and the fact that we were able to
accomplish this using local renewable energy is an added benefit.
We are very proud to offer this innovative service to the
community."
SDG&E employed the Borrego Springs Microgrid because the
transmission line that usually feeds the community had been damaged
by lightning. SDG&E crews needed to replace or repair three
transmission poles, which would usually require a 10-hour sustained
outage to the entire community of Borrego
Springs. However, SDG&E was able to call on the Borrego
Springs Microgrid to avoid the impact of a major outage. The
Borrego Springs Microgrid uses advanced technologies – including
local power generation, energy storage, and automated switching –
to create a more resilient local grid for the benefit of customers.
The Microgrid is connected to the centralized energy grid, but can
disconnect from the larger grid and function independently during
emergencies, supplying vital electricity to the local community
through its onsite resources.
SDG&E seamlessly switched over to the Microgrid to power the
entire community at 8:45 a.m. on
May 21, allowing the maintenance work
to begin. The Microgrid generated the majority of power during this
time from the large Borrego Solar facility, using batteries and
traditional distributed generation to "follow the load" and fill in
gaps created by the solar facility. This is necessary because solar
power is intermittent by nature and requires back-up resources when
solar becomes unavailable, such as when a cloud moves in front of
the sun. The Microgrid uses advanced computer software and
automated switching to ensure these fluctuations are accounted for
in real time. This innovative network of resources working together
to support each other kept a steady supply of power flowing to
Borrego Springs throughout the
day. At 5:30 p.m., SDG&E
completed the grid maintenance and switched the town back to the
main grid. Rather than having an extended, 9-hour outage, customers
experienced a planned outage of less than 10 minutes as they were
switched back from the Microgrid to the repaired transmission
feed.
"The Microgrid was really a crucial tool during this
maintenance," said Linda Haddock,
executive director of the Borrego
Springs Chamber of Commerce. "This innovative project
provided electricity to our residents and kept the town running all
day. Residents were also pleased that the Borrego Solar facility
was used to support this effort. It's great to see all these local,
sustainable resources being put back into the community to truly
make a difference in the lives of our residents in Borrego Springs."
Using clean renewable energy to energize Borrego Springs was one of the main goals of a
$5 million grant the California
Energy Commission (CEC) recently awarded to SDG&E. The grant is
allowing the Microgrid to connect to the Borrego Solar facility to
power the entire community, making this one of the nation's largest
microgrids that can operate solely on renewable energy. In addition
to bringing in more clean power, the funding is being used to
increase the size of the Microgrid to service all of Borrego Springs, further enhancing local
reliability and reducing the duration of power outages. SDG&E
accomplished both these goals of using the solar facility and
powering the entire community with the Microgrid for the first time
during the recent grid maintenance.
SDG&E's success during the outage is the first step in
implementing the CEC's grant. SDG&E plans to incorporate more
advanced computer software and sensors to continue to enhance the
Microgrid. These innovations will broaden the Microgrid's use of
renewable energy to power the entire community and allow this type
of outage response to become routine and standardized. The physical
improvements are expected to be completed by mid-2016. In 2008, the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided SDG&E with
$8 million in grants that helped
launch the Borrego Springs Microgrid. By avoiding a lengthy outage,
the Microgrid demonstrated its ongoing potential to put the CEC and
DOE funding to good use, creating a true renewable energy Microgrid
that will enhance reliability, promote innovation and benefit all
customers.
SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and
reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4
million electric meters and 868,000 natural gas meters in
San Diego and southern
Orange counties. The utility's
area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to
creating ways to help customers save energy and money every
day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a
Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego. Connect with SDG&E's Customer
Contact Center at 800-411-7343, on Twitter (@SDGE) and
Facebook.
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SOURCE San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)