City of Fremont Fire Stations Microgrid Project
City of Fremont fire station microgrids manage local, clean energy resources for greater reliability
Gridscape Solutions, Inc.
Recipient
Fremont, CA
Recipient Location
10th
Senate District
24th
Assembly District
$1,817,920
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
Gridscape Solutions successfully completed the microgrid project in March 2019. Because of the widespread awareness of the public safety power shutoff, these microgrids at Fremont fire stations received a lot of interest, and were featured in several news articles and reports. Gridscape Solutions is expecting to have more than 25 microgrids designed and deployed by the end of 2020. The final report, [i]Solar Emergency Microgrids for Fremont Fire Stations - Demonstrating Energy Savings and Grid Resilience for Critical Facilities [/i]has been published.
View Final ReportThe Issue
California needs to make better use of locally available renewable energy to increase resiliency and address climate change impacts, such as increased fires, severe storms, and heatwaves. Critical facilities are especially vulnerable to climate change impacts that disrupt the normal delivery of energy needed for their operation. Microgrids can help increase the resiliency of critical facilities such as fire stations through maximizing use of local renewable energy with energy storage.
Project Innovation
The project team designed and built microgrids at three fire stations in Fremont, California. Each microgrid consists of a microgrid energy management system, a parking lot canopy photovoltaic system, and a battery energy storage system. The automated microgrid control system manages local energy resources and loads. The microgrids are designed to provide at least three hours a day of power for critical loads during a utility power outage.
Project Benefits
Critical facilities, such as fire stations, are vulnerable to power outages, so having local, renewable generation decreases their dependence on outside electricity sources. This is the first implementation of microgrids for several fire stations in the region and creates a great opportunity for proof of concept to overcome risk and knowledge barriers to adopting high penetration solar PV systems and energy storage, demonstrate energy efficiency by optimizing power generation and loads, and provide increased energy security during utility power outages. The microgrids help reduce grid congestion and increase grid reliability.
Environmental Sustainability
This project will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by using local clean power generation (solar photovoltaics) and energy storage when available. This emissions reduction will help the City of Fremont meet its greenhouse gas emis
Reliability
This project helps reduce grid congestion and improve resiliency for the distribution system by combining local photovoltaic generation and energy storage, thus reducing the utility load where substations are near maximum capacit
Energy Security
The fire station microgrids provide at least three hours a day of electricity to critical loads during utility power outages. The fire stations are vulnerable to earthquakes from the nearby Hayward faults, so having local, renewa
Key Project Members
Vipul Gore
Subrecipients
Delta Products Corporation
Microgrid Energy
Jim Willson
Match Partners
City of Fremont
Gridscape Solutions, Inc.
Delta Products Corporation
Microgrid Energy
