1. Community Microgrids The Path to Resilience and Sustainability
Rosana Francescato
Communications Director
Clean Coalition
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Matt Renner
Development & Strategic Partnerships Director
Clean Coalition
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10 May 2018

2. The Clean Coalition’s mission
The Clean Coalition is a nonprofit organization.
Our mission:
To accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid through technical, policy, and project development expertise. 2

3. The Clean Coalition vision: 25x25
From 2025 onward, at least 25% of all electricity from newly added generation capacity in the United States will be from local renewable energy sources 3

4. Our centralized power grid4

5. An outdated and vulnerable system
Our legacy, centralized power grid carries multiple critical risks.
This architecture is costly, aging, inefficient, and a highly vulnerable security risk
Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently, further demonstrating the vulnerability and high cost
Cyber attacks are a growing risk, and an attack on a centralized system can impact millions
To ensure both local and national security, we must move quickly to a new solution: a resilient system

6. Building a resilient power system: Community Microgrids
What are Community Microgrids
See the video here:
A microgrid is a local energy grid with control capability, which means it can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously.

7. Community Microgrids: The building blocks of a resilient power system
A modern approach for designing and operating the electric grid, stacked with local renewables and staged for resilience.
Four basic components:
Solar, energy storage, demand response, and monitoring, communications, & control
Key features:
A targeted and coordinated local grid area served by one or more distribution substations — can “island” from the grid
Optimal deployment of clean local energy generation
Ongoing, renewables-driven backup power for critical and prioritized loads across the grid area
A solution that can be readily extended throughout a utility service territory — and replicated in any utility service territory around the world
Community Microgrid: A microgrid that connects multiple buildings and multiple utility meters into a connected microgrid during grid outages
Demand response in a Community Microgrid is about shaving peak use for a customer to reduce their demand charges. This is done by automatic battery discharges during peak use times.

8. Traditional microgrids focus on single customers
Source: Oncor Electric Delivery Company 8

9. Community Microgrids serve thousands of customers
Source: Oncor Electric Delivery Company 9

10. Community Microgrids compared to traditional microgrids
Feature
Community Microgrid
Traditional microgrid
Scale
Spans an entire substation grid area, benefitting thousands of customers.
Covers a single customer location or a small number of adjacent locations. 
Cost
Lower costs by deploying distributed energy resources (DER) more broadly and using a systems approach that identifies optimal locations for DER. 
Maximizes benefits for a single customer; does little for the local grid. Replicating across an entire community area is very expensive.
Grid resilience and security
Provides backup power to prioritized loads that are critical to an entire community.
Provides backup power to only a single location or customer.
Scalability
Enables easy replication and scaling across any distribution grid area.
Requires tedious work to implement at each individual location.
Replicating a traditional microgrid across an entire community area would also fail to leverage and optimize existing distribution grid assets.
Community Microgrid identifies optimal locations for DER in context of existing local distribution grid assets and loads. 
Prioritized loads include police and fire stations, water treatment centers, emergency shelters, etc
Traditional microgrid requires tedious work to implement at each individual location, starting from scratch in terms of both analysis and physical assets. 10

11. Backup power from Community Microgrids
Can provide backup power for an entire community during short outages
Connects multiple buildings and utility meters into a connected microgrid
Includes multiple Solar Emergency Microgrids within a reasonably close geographic area
Solar Emergency Microgrid:
Provide indefinite, renewables-driven backup power for critical loads at priority facilities:
Police and fire stations, emergency operations centers and shelters, hospitals, and critical communications and water infrastructure
Usually has one meter — at a school that serves as a community shelter, a hospital, a police station, or a town center 
A key feature: separation of critical and non-critical loads
- Community Microgrid: A microgrid that connects multiple buildings and multiple utility meters into a connected microgrid during grid outages
- Solar Emergency Microgrid: A behind-the-meter microgrid -- all the microgrid assets are interconnected behind that customer's meter
Both are islandable
Community Microgrids are innovative because currently, regulations prohibit users sharing power -- challenge is finding a way to work with the utilities and work on the policy and regulatory side to allow Community Microgrids to provide resilience benefits to communities.

12. Community Microgrid benefits
A Community Microgrid brings communities four benefits not provided by today’s centralized energy system
Lower costs and increased economic investment
Improved overall performance
Resilience and security
Replicable, scalable model
Additional Benefits:
(1) Scalable - design and control logic can be applied to individual building, large campus, up to entire local distribution area
(2) Microgrids at different sizes can be linked in a hierarchical network for simpler, more stable control architecture
(3) This nesting enhances cyber-security as well as resilience to major disruptions

13. 1. Lower costs, increased economic investment
Reduces the cost of electricity
Eliminates expensive peak periods and associated infrastructure costs
Reduces the need for expensive transmission lines
Creates local jobs
Installation and maintenance of clean local energy keeps jobs local
Reduces costs in emergency situations
Eliminates expensive diesel costs
Minimizes emergency response and shipment expenses
Keeps businesses open, serving the community and maintaining revenue streams
Manatí, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
Photo: José Reyes

14. 2. Improved overall performance
Replaces fossil fuels
Serves local transportation needs
Balances the grid
Energy generation and demand need to be balanced
Balancing generation and demand locally is more efficient
This cuts energy costs and reduces price volatility
Generation
Demand
Balancing the grid means we lower costs currently associated with peaks

15. 3. Resilience and security
Provides indefinite renewables-driven backup power to critical and priority loads during emergencies
Provides ongoing resilience to withstand multiple disaster and/or cybersecurity scenarios

16. 4. Replicable and scalable model
Can cover an entire substation area
Can be scaled and deployed in any community

17. Where to site Community Microgrids: Opportunity in vastly untapped commercial-scale solar market
Commercial and industrial customers are typically the largest electricity users and emitters of GHG. They also match well with solar.
Most generation: Larger roof and parking spaces generate more energy
Lower system costs: Larger PV systems reduce overall costs
Best grid locations: Large loads served by existing power lines and transformers
Matching load profiles: Larger daytime loads match solar generation
Financially motivated: Larger bills, including demand charges, plus roof and parking lease opportunities
Commercial & Industrial customers offer the most cost-effective programs for utilities and communities due to their size, location, and matching load profiles, plus motivation to stabilize energy costs.
Via a robust and focused program, utilities and communities can take advantage of this customer category to accelerate and optimize DG/DERs.
Considerations:
Feeders are connected within each substation. This enables sharing energy across feeders and thus across customers and customer types.
Each urban/suburban substation or set of substations can find the most optimal mix between the three primary customer types: Commercial, Industrial, Residential.
Both weekday and weekend load profiles must be considered. In general, during weekday daytimes when residential load is low and C&I load is high, a good portion or all of the C&I daytime PV generation can be consumed “hyper-locally” by C&I customers, either directly or via sharing energy across those customers. During the weekends, C&I customers may use less daytime load which can then be shared more broadly with local residential customers who often use more load during weekend daytimes than weekday daytimes.
Multi-dwelling units can be bundled with C&I given the larger rooftops and loads; however, the load profiles will match residential, not C&I.

18. Untapped solar potential: Oakland/San Leandro area now

19. Untapped solar potential: Oakland/San Leandro area with commercial-scale solar
The Clean Coalition’s EBCE Solar Siting Survey identified over 650 MW of technical solar siting potential on over 250 discrete sites -- enough to power 165,000 homes. Each site identified has the potential to host at least 1 MW on rooftops, parking lots, and parking structures located at the site.
There’s also siting potential for smaller PV projects in Alameda County. With a min project size of 500 kW, the Clean Coalition expects a technical solar siting potential of 1.2 GW; a minimum project size of 100 kW would likely have uncovered over 2 GW of solar siting potential.

20. Thank you. Any questions before we continue?20

21. Community Microgrid examples

22. How to create Community Microgrid projects
Methodology
Step 1: Staging
Define goals, identify sites, produce functional design, align stakeholders
Step 2: Planning
Secure load data, run economic analyses, produce engineering design, pursue funding
Step 3: Deployment preparation
Raise funds, produce an RFP, produce finance-ready engineering design, secure permits
Step 4: Deployment
Execute contract with sites, secure financing commitments, produce permit engineering and construction drawings, construct the Community Microgrid(s), test and commission equipment
Step 5: Operations and maintenance
(Notes on image)
Scope: Survey across Southern California Edison’s Preferred Resources Pilot (PRP) area, approximately 120 square miles in Orange County, CA.
Result: Over 160 MW of new solar PV technical potential in the PRP on large rooftops, parking lots, and parking garages

23. California gas peaker plants
Setting a precedent: Community Microgrids eliminate gas peakers
Influenced by Clean Coalition cost analysis, the California regulators are rejecting new peaker plants, such as Puente in Oxnard, CA, in favor of solar+storage (key feature of Community Microgrids)
In Jan 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission also announced that PG&E will be required to use renewables and storage instead of gas-fired plants run by Calpine
This appears to be “the first time a utility will procure energy storage to replace existing gas plants for local capacity needs.”
Leveraging this important analysis can prevent future new gas plants across the country
On October 5, at the urging of Clean Coalition, the California Energy Commission halted the Puente Power Project $299 million, 262 MW gas-fired beachfront power plant in Oxnard, CA, which is a Disadvantaged Community as defined by CalEPA’s CalEnviroScreen 3.0.
This follows on the heels of another nearby gas-fired project rejected by the California Public Utilities Commission after Clean Coalition analysis and advocacy.
Our analysis found that this project could be replaced entirely with solar+storage at a lower cost to ratepayers and a significantly reduced local environmental impact. Our study and model of the alternative to the Puente Power Project using solar+storage can be downloaded here:
Source:

24. North Bay Community Resilience Initiative
Initiative goals
Rebuild fire-impacted areas with high levels of sustainability in homes, buildings, and the electric grid, enabling a modern, distributed, carbon-free system that delivers substantial economic, environmental, and resilience benefits.
Establish a blueprint for rebuilding disaster- destroyed areas resiliently, in a timely and cost- effective manner.
Provide a model for operating a modern local energy system that incorporates local renewables.
Ensure that building codes are advanced to achieve more resilient, safer, and cleaner building stock and communities — includes standardized housing designs.
Lower ratepayer costs by using DER to defer or avoid substantial costs. 24

25. North Bay Community Resilience Initiative
The initiative will combine the optimal solar siting opportunity of commercial and industrial sites with the opportunities of homes and apartment buildings.
A target of 30 MW of solar PV could include these types of sites: 25

26. North Bay initiative: Economic benefits
Benefits over 20 years of installing 30 MW of local solar PV on the built environment:
Based on a Clean Coalition analysis

27. North Bay Community Resilience Initiative
North Bay Team
Clean Coalition
Sonoma Clean Power
PG&E
Rebuild North Bay
Center for Climate Protection
County of Sonoma, Energy & Sustainability Division
Regional Climate Protection Authority
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
Design AVEnues, LLC: EE/ZNE expert Ann Edminster
Stone Edge Farm Microgrid
Wave One
Other city and county leadership 27

28. Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative
Initiative goals
Stage a Community Microgrid with the Montecito Fire Protection District headquarters, Montecito Water District headquarters, and an array of commercial properties.
Create indefinite renewables-driven energy resilience for critical Montecito Fire Protection District and Montecito Water District facilities, as well as other critical facilities.
Stage a Community Microgrid in the Montecito Lower Village (part of the City of Santa Barbara).
Provide a near-term showcase for additional Community Microgrids throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, and beyond.

29. Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative: Lower Village commercial-scale solar potential

30. Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative: Lower Village Community Microgrid map view

31. Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative: Lower Village Community Microgrid block diagram
Montecito Country Club
Vons cluster
Other Tier 1 Loads
CVS
North of 101
Santa Barbara Substation
Tier 2 & 3 Loads
Tier 2 & 3 Loads
Hot Springs feeder loop 16 kV
Tier 2 & 3 Loads
Transmission
South of 101
Athletic Club
Event Center
Cemetery
Sanitary District
Music Academy
Four Seasons
Coral Casino
Diagram Elements
Autonomously Controllable Microgrid
Relay/Switch (open, closed)

32. Montecito Association HQ
Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative: Upper Village Community Microgrid potential
Fire Dist. HQ
Water Dist. HQ
Wells-Fargo Bank
San Ysidro Rd
US Post Office
Gas Station
Market
This Google Maps view has all the stores labeled.
East Valley Road / Hwy 192
Montecito Association HQ

33. Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative: Upper Village Community Microgrid block diagram
Diagram Elements
Autonomously Controllable Microgrid
Relay/Switch (open, closed)
Northern Portion
Tier 2 & 3 Loads
Central
Portion
Eastern
Portion
Tier 2 & 3 Loads
Southern Portion
Santa Barbara Substation
Transmission
Lower Village
Community Microgrid
Hot Springs Feeder (16 kV)

34. Peninsula Advanced Energy Community (PAEC) Initiative
Initiative goals
Accelerate the planning, approval, and deployment of an Advanced Energy Community (AEC), a replicable approach to modernizing the electric grid, in southern San Mateo County.
Showcase the benefits of AECs: significant energy, environmental, economic, resilience, and security benefits.
Overcome the barriers of finding viable sites, securing project financing, and connecting AEC projects to the grid.
Inform future action by policymakers, municipalities, governmental agencies, utility executives, and other key stakeholders.
PAEC is made possible by a grant through the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program.
Solar Siting Survey showing part of PAEC region 34

35. PAEC Initiative: Redwood City disadvantaged community and Community Microgrid sites
Redwood City Corporate Yard
Stanford Medicine Outpatient Clinic
USPS
Sobrato Broadway Plaza
San Mateo County Corporate
Yard
USPS
Hoover Park
Boys & Girls Club
Stanford Redwood City
Hoover
Elementary School

36. Valencia Gardens Energy Storage Project
Initiative goals
Enhance community resilience by setting the stage for emergency renewable backup power in the event of a natural disaster or widespread grid outage.
Increase access to clean energy by creating more capacity locally on the distribution grid so that neighbors can go solar.
Build on prior successes by leveraging an existing showcase solar deployment.
Demonstrate the viability of local energy storage for ratepayers, developers, and the utility.
Protect open space by deploying in a dense urban community on built environments.
Valencia Gardens is a 300,000-square-foot housing development consisting of 218 low-income family units and 42 senior apartments. The project will add 500 kW of energy storage power to the roughly 800 kW of rooftop solar already interconnected to the local distribution grid.
Valencia Gardens Energy Storage Project partners 36

37. Valencia Gardens Energy Storage Project
Ecoplexus project at the Valencia Gardens Apartments in SF. ~800 kW meeting ~80% of the total annual load. 37

38. Puerto Rico: The Solar Saves Lives project
Solar Saves Lives goal: Install Solar Emergency Microgrids at 12 of the 62 hospitals and medical clinics in Puerto Rico — one already installed
Team: The Solar Foundation, Direct Relief, the Hispanic Federation, the Puerto Rico Primary Care Association Network, and New Energy PR
Key components of a Solar Emergency Microgrid: solar photovoltaics, energy storage, and monitoring, communications, and control.
A key part of the Solar Emergency Microgrid is the separation of critical and non-critical loads, so that solar+storage can island from the grid and provide indefinite backup power to critical loads.
The completed 18 kW solar system at the Migrant Health Clinic in Maricao, Puerto Rico. Source: Kelsey Clark, The Solar Foundation 38

39. Every community deserves Community Microgrids
Learn more: clean-coalition.org/our-work/community-microgrids
Support clean local energy at the municipal level
Work with the Local Clean Energy Alliance
Work with the Clean Coalition: Solar Siting Surveys, feed-in tariff designs
We don’t have to wait till our communities are hit by disasters to build resilient power systems. 39

40. Thank you. Any questions?
For questions, contact:
Matt Renner
Development and Strategic Partnerships Director
Rosana Francescato
Communications Director 40

41. Further resources More on microgrids: Meet the Microgrid (Vox)
How Microgrids Work (Department of Energy)
So What Is a Microgrid, Exactly? (Microgrid Knowledge)
Community Microgrids for Disaster Resilience (Optimist Daily)
How Solar Emergency Microgrids Keep the Lights on After Natural Disasters (PV Solar Report)
Rebuilding with Community Microgrids in Wake of California Fires (Microgrid Knowledge) 41