INTELLIGENT GREEN TECHNOLOGY
Energy resiliency and security is a
critical concern for the US Department
of Defense, which needs to operate
regardless of electric grid outages from
cyber-attack, natural disaster, aging or
lacking infrastructure, or equipment
failure. The Department of Defense is also
responsible for most of the US government
fuel consumption and is one of the largest
single consumers of energy in the world.
As such, it has a vested interest in
ensuring energy resilience, reducing
consumption and controlling costs, and
has pursued a variety of initiatives to
reduce fuel needs and change the mix of
resources that it uses.
Military success and security in combat
situations depends, in part, on safe and
reliable access to fuel, which can come
with a high price tag. Considering the
price of fuel for forward operating bases,
or the actual cost of buying, moving and
protecting a gallon of petroleum, the
costs of supplying battlefield generators
with fuel has increased dramatically.
This dependence and the threat it faces
in forward operating bases led the US
Army to seek both energy alternatives and
resource management strategies.
By transforming an independently
operating system of generators into a
demand managed microgrid, an Intelligent
Mobile Power Distribution System
provides power only where and when it is
needed. This technology indirectly limits
the risk that troops face to use, transport
and store petroleum due to the decrease in
fuel consumption.
The system supports resiliency by
providing adequate power to meet current
energy demands, instead of inefficiently
engaging all the generators continuously,
which can reduce energy waste. Further,
the system also uses intelligent load
management technology to prevent grid
collapse in the event of a generator fault.
If one generator were to fail, the
Intelligent Mobile Power Distribution
System prevents a stoppage of energy flow
by shifting demand onto the supporting
generators, thereby providing a constant,
safe supply of power. This system reduced
fuel consumption more than 30% at the
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Microgrids must be able to operate in parallel
with the grid and as standalone electrical
power systems that consists of multiple
generating assets and storage sources
supplying loads.
forward operating military base.
These and other successful early
deployments helped advance and
innovate on technology that is enabling
new applications and driving value
from microgrid systems. The control
architecture is one of the most important
elements of a microgrid system—it
provides the brains behind the operation.
In most current designs, the microgrid
is tied to the upstream grid via a point
of interconnection and is managed by
local control of assets, which enables
faster, semi-autonomous or autonomous
control of the microgrid devices to better
maintain operation within connected
equipment limits.
Nearly five years ago, early US
Department of Energy smart grid
demonstration projects showed the
technology was feasible to manage the
utility-scale storage system and integration
of renewables. However, at that time,
the controller was a customised solution.
Today, an integrated, modular, distributed
control architecture is becoming a reality.
The easy configuration of the controller
helps maximise the flexibility and
scalability of the system while reducing
engineering cost.
When looking for a controller,
functionality should coordinate automated
system sequencing in response to user
commands, system status, limits or faults.
Additional control functions could also
include active control, data logging, alarm
management and processing, as well as
built-in security measures.
The costs to generate and store energy
are decreasing, which is changing the
nature of the utility grid from a centralised
generation model to a distributed system
of sources and loads. The electric system
architecture is a system that allows
consumers of large amounts of energy, to
generate, store and manage energy usage.
In effect, power generation is moving
closer to the user due to the availability of
microgrid system technology that can be
leveraged with multiple types of renewable
or distributed generation as well as the
lower cost of energy storage.
The drivers for microgrid systems
have evolved and the technology is being
used by a broader mix of industries and
applications. Installing a microgrid is
no longer limited to science projects
and forward operating military bases.
Microgrids can now be easily applied to
facilities that already have solar, storage or
other on-site generation sources.
Excerpted from Microgrid evolution fuels
smarter energy management by Bruce
G Campbell, Jim Dankowski, Nathan
Justice, Bob Kirslis, William Murch.
Courtesy Eaton.
The control
architecture
is one of the
most important
elements of
a microgrid
system—it
provides the
brains behind
the operation.
Issue 13
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS