High Penetration PV Initiative
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Awardee:
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Sacramento Municipal Utility District | ||
| Project Partners: | Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), BEW Engineering, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) , Sunpower, New Energy Options, Areva, New Energy Options, Irradiance, Solar Consulting Services, Augustyn & Company, SynerGEE, and other independent consultants | ||
| Award Date: | March 11, 2010 | ||
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CSI RD&D Funding:
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$2,073,232 |
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| Match Funding: | $1,623,859 | ||
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Start Date:
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June 2010 | ||
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End Date:
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June 2012 | ||
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Project Manager:
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Elaine Sison-Lebrilla | ||
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916-732-7017 | ||
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esison @ smud.org | ||
| Grant Manager: | Stephan Barsun | ||
| 509-891-3187 | |||
| stephan.barsun @ itron.com | |||
Summary
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), in partnership with the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), is conducting a research, demonstration, and deployment project that targets testing and development of hardware and software for high-penetration PV. This effort is intended to address key grid integration and operational barriers that hinder larger-scale PV adoption into mainstream operations and onto the distribution grid. Both utilities are currently managing the introduction of high penetration PV into their systems and are planning a coordinated effort to better integrate PV into their systems. As part of this effort, SMUD and HECO have identified respective case studies at specific locations in California and Hawaii, solar assessment and forecasting needs, and PV grid integration and visualization needs.
These R&D activities aim to address key integration barriers in visualizing, monitoring, and controlling high-penetration PV on the grid. They include:
- Development of a software visualization tool to enable identification of high value locations for distributed PV on the distribution system, and to identify problem areas that will require reinforcement or modification to enable high penetrations. Smart siting of renewable distributed generation involves fully understanding the solar resource, its potential deployment, and interaction with the existing distribution infrastructure. Case studies have been identified that include residential, commercial, and greenfield sites overlaid throughout the electrical system in order to assess interconnection benefits (cost and locational value) to the system.
- Development of a renewable generation operational tool that allows utilities to see how the renewable generation is functioning on their system. This tool enables full use of distributed PV in displacing the need for distribution upgrades and natural gas peakers. It will also allow validation of forecasting software, providing three hour-ahead and day-ahead PV output forecasts.
- Deployment of a solar irradiance sensor network and coordinated advance communication for controls (i.e., dedicated cellular, AMI network, SCADA-enabled condition monitoring, and distribution RTUs) shall also be investigated as part of this effort.
As utilities move towards a smart grid, becoming smarter about the siting of renewable distributed generation to maximize its benefit will help accomplish a combination of economic, reliability, and environmental goals that drive the utilities of today.
Status
| Time Period | Activity |
| June 2010 | Project started |
Project Documents/Website Links
- Project presentation PDF (902 KB)
