SMUD to Test Microgrid

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s Board Nov. 4 approved a project to test the feasibility of integrating a microgrid system into its larger utility electrical supply system. “This is the first project within the United States to be tested in the field,” said Kim Crawford, SMUD’s environmental management department project manager. Among the benefits of a microgrid, she said, are power reliability and the ability to be isolated from the main grid in the event of local power grid problems. The pilot project is to test both the muni’s existing central heating and cooling plant and “operation and control concepts and components of a microgrid system,” according to Crawford. A microgrid is a localized grouping of electricity sources and loads that normally operate with the traditional centralized grid through a single point of common coupling, but can also disconnect and function separately. As part of the project, SMUD plans to install and operate three natural gas-fired engine-generator sets, totaling 300 kW, for use in an existing heating and cooling plant. An absorption chiller, small cooling tower and a trailer-mounted zinc bromine flow battery capable of supplying 500 kW for six hours are also to be added to the system. “It’s designed to transfer seamlessly between the connection with SMUD’s power grid and isolated islanding operation,” Crawford said of the system. “We’ll be operating this microgrid project for about 12 to 18 months to collect performance data,” said Mike Ross of SMUD’s energy development group. The project is co-funded by a California Energy Commission grant. In conjunction with the project’s approval, the board also adopted a California Environmental Quality Act study that found the project would not expand the heating and cooling plant’s environmental footprint. The approval vote was 5-0. Board members Larry Carr and Rob Kerth were absent. Also during the meeting, the board unanimously approved a 20-year gas purchase contract with EIF KC Landfill Gas to buy up to 7,050 MMBtu/day of renewable landfill gas, with deliveries beginning in 2014. “The gas would come from a landfill facility near Kansas City, Missouri,” board member Howard Posner said. “It meets the Energy Commission’s renewable portfolio standard, and would be a long-term contributor to SMUD’s renewable goals.” The gas is to flow into the Kern River interstate pipeline capacity at Opal, Wyoming. “SMUD has capacity from that point to the Cosumnes Power Plant,” according to the muni. Last week’s meeting was the first since the Nov. 2 statewide election, during which four SMUD board members--Carr, Posner, Genevieve Shiroma, and Bill Slaton--were elected to new four-year terms. All but Shiroma ran unopposed. The board’s other three members, Nancy Bui-Thompson, Kerth, and Renee Nunes Taylor, are up for re-election in 2012.

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SMUD to Test Microgrid

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