Miramar Microgrid - Flight Line Resilience through Landfill Gas and Energy Storage
MCAS Miramar will significantly enhance its DoD-funded microgrid with the addition of new components, controls, and capabilities. Key upgrades are a battery energy storage system and limiting of demand from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.
The Regents of California, San Diego
Recipient
La Jolla, CA
Recipient Location
38th
Senate District
77th
Assembly District
$518,693
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
During 2024, microgrid equipment was completely installed, including commissioning and functional testing of the battery energy storage system. The project team tested and verified the ability for the microgrid to transition between grid-tied and islanded modes as well as black start capability. Additional data collection and performance validation is planned for 2025.
The Issue
Miramar Marine Base is a critical military facility that requires energy reliability and resiliency for mission critical operations. The Base's availability of intermittent biogas generators can meet the electrical demand. However, the generators can be interrupted with the inconsistent flow of landfill biogas. When this happens, the electrical power is switched to fossil gas generators that can take considerable starting time to fully power up the Base and impact the Base's ability to reduce fossil fuel use. The microgrid and storage batteries envisioned by Base operations will help mitigate this issue while also increasing energy reliability and resiliency.
Project Innovation
This project will demonstrate a microgrid at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. It will incorporate distributed energy resources including: biogas generators, solar PV, battery energy storage, and electric vehicles. When operational, the microgrid will help maintain critical flight line facilities during grid outages and facilitate higher renewable generation from landfill gas (LFG) generators.
Project Benefits
This project is incorporating a large-scale battery storage system, as well as advanced demand response controls, into a very complex microgrid with a heavy penetration of renewables and over 100 buildings worth of load. Energy storage will allow the microgrid to incorporate higher penetrations of renewable landfill power in island mode, while mitigating demand charges in economic mode, saving money for the Base. This project will address critical challenges associated with instantaneous power loss from the biogas generators by using microgrid controlled distributed energy resources. Furthermore, project findings will be relevant to landfill gas generation facilities, wastewater treatment plants with biogas generation, as well as hospitals, ports, and military bases.
