Ameresco has begun work on a 6-MW natural gas-fired peaking plant that will anchor one of the largest private microgrids in the United States, which is located at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia.
The peaking plant will be part of a 35-MW unregulated, stand-alone electric grid designed to serve the evolving 1200-acre mixed-use Navy Yard campus.
Ameresco will provide comprehensive design, engineering, building, and long-term operation and maintenance of the plant.
The multi-million-dollar peaking plant is expected to run during the Navy Yard’s peak demand periods and when energy and capacity costs are high on the central grid.
“Ameresco is not only designing and developing a project that addresses the Navy Yard’s energy growth needs, reliability requirements, and cost targets, but one that can also provide back-up and resiliency support as required,” said Prema Gupta, senior vice president, Navy Yard Planning, Development, and Operations at PIDC, Philadelphia’s public-private economic development corporation. PIDC serves as master developer of the Navy Yard.
By generating power during peak times, Ameresco’s plant will allow the Navy Yard to reliably meet the electric demand of the Navy Yard and its tenants. The peaking plant also creates opportunity for the Navy Yard to participate in the PJM Ancillary Service Market and generate revenue to help offset the cost of the power project.
“As a key component of the Navy Yard’s leading-edge microgrid, the plant will be capable of providing certain resiliency services and critical support in the event of extended grid outages in addition to shaving the peak load requirements of the microgrid,” said Michael Bakas, senior vice president, Ameresco. “This role for Ameresco leverages its depth of experience at developing and operating comprehensive, distributed energy systems integrated into microgrids that serve mission critical facilities for resiliency and cost control purposes.”
The peaking plant is expected to be operating later this year.
Of the 13.5 million square feet of real estate available at the historic Navy Yard, more than 7.5 million square feet is occupied and in development.
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