September 2020- This case study explores potential number of microgrids that need to be installed in California in order to operate independent of the transmission lines.
Summary:
With federal and state level legislation supporting microgrids, California can achieve a high level of microgrid and storage battery penetration by 2030 in the best case scenario. In order to achieve that, California grid ( IOUs and Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs)) will have to support development of an estimated 12,000 microgrids with an average size of 2500 kVA for a fully resilient grid.
California (2019):
- Population: 40 million
- Economy size: $3.2 Trillion
- Hourly average demand: 30 GWh
- Minimum battery GWh to be installed for one hour duration: 30 GWh
Microgrid Quantity:
2.5 MVA size each —> 30GWh/ 2.5 MWh —> 12000 microgrids
Microgrid Cost:
12000 (quantity) * $2 million (avg cost of each unit) = $24 billion ( including 2 MWh battery)
Full capacity for 12 hours: $144 Billion
OR if Cars were to power the grid (same capacity)
- Equal to (300,000 cars each 100 KWh batteries for one hour)= 30 GWh
- Equal to 3,600,000, 100 kWh car battery for 12 hours
- Cost of cars @ $50k —> 180,000,000,000= $180 billion (for 12 hours)
Microgrid Timeline:
- Complete one per business day ( 250 days): 48 years
- Complete six per business day ( 250 days) : 8 years
Assumptions:
- $300/KWh average battery storage cost
- $1.25 million for Interconnection, land, permitting, engineering and utility upgrades
- Does not include home battery capacity, other storage technologies and diesel or Gas generators
- Average load values are used
- Does not account for substation upgrades
- Study based on capacity for minimum 12 hour battery capacity duration
- Existing or future Solar PV connected to each microgrid will additionally support these Microgrids
- Does not account for inflation
- Does not account for energy efficiency savings
- Battery storage capacity to be about 40% of peak power
Benefits:
- Security
- Resilience
- Flexibility
Challenges:
- Future load growth due to larger EV fleet
- Land for Battery Storage and Utility Interconnection
Future Topics:
- Microgrid financing structures
- Bio fuels
VGG – Your partner in energy projects – September-2020