Quick Microgrid News for August 20, 2015
The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia will hold a kick-off workshop September 22 on its grid modernization investigation.
The commission is considering microgrids, energy storage, distributed energy resources and electric vehicles in its evaluation of Washington, D.C.’s energy delivery system. It hopes to increase sustainability and make the system more reliable, efficient, cost effective and interactive.
Stakeholders can provide input on the scope of the proceeding by August 31.
The kick-off meeting is at 10 a.m. in the Commission’s Hearing Room at 1325 G Street, N.W., Eighth Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005.
D.C. had an embarrasing power outage earlier this year. Given its lack of space for new power plants, and its role in governing the nation, it is considered a key city for a microgrids.
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Meanwhile, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is reporting that it is assisting the US General Services Administration (GSA) in analyzing the engineering and economic feasibility of a microgrid and advanced district energy in Washington, D.C.’s downtown core.
The GSA now operates a district heat and chilled water system centered around the National Mall.
LBNL’s project lead is Michael Stadler, who heads LBNL’s Microgrid/Distributed Energy Resources team. Team members include Gonçalo Cardoso, Salman Mashayekh, Nicholas DeForest. Microgrid Labs is serving as a project partner.
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The Clean Energy Collective has moved into the New York market with its pioneering roofless solar, also known as community solar.
Development is already underway on more than a dozen project sites from the five boroughs of New York City to Upstate, serving residential and commercial customers in the Con Edison, NGRID Niagara Mohawk, Central Hudson, and Orange and Rockland territories, according to the Colorado company.
None of the projects include microgrids, according to a Clean Energy Collective spokesman. However, MicrogridKnowledge.com recently reported that a model is emerging in New York that adds microgrids and community choice aggregations to community solar.
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ViZn Energy Systems says it will supply a 2 MW zinc-iron redox flow battery system to power project developer Hecate Energy. The battery will supply ancillary services to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator.
“Utility-scale projects like this one will be increasingly important for the energy storage industry moving forward. Utilities are now working to figure out how to maximize the potential of their existing generation capacity,” said Ron Van Dell, CEO of ViZn.
The 2 MW/6 MWh flow battery, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2016, is on target to be the largest commissioned flow battery installation in North America and Europe to date, ViZn said.
ViZn’s describes its zinc-iron chemistry as safe and non-toxic, and says it allows for storage systems in a wide range of geographic locations without the health and environmental risks associated with many battery chemistries. ViZn’s battery is scalable to tens of megawatts for utility-scale applications and offers one of the fastest charge and discharge responses on the market, according to the company.
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