Santa Rosa Junior College Urban Microgrid Project
This project will integrate three types of distributed energy resource (DER) elements: solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, electrical energy storage, and load reduction devices and load control systems, all managed by a single microgrid controller.
Sonoma County Junior College District/ Santa Rosa Junior College
Recipient
Santa Rosa, CA
Recipient Location
2nd
Senate District
2nd
Assembly District
$2,646,819
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
Construction and testing of the Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) urban microgrid was completed in 2023. In 2024, the microgrid islanded and supported the entire campus load for approximately 4 hours in addition to participating in 8 demand response events. The microgrid transitions to island mode in less than two power cycles, which prevents the need for a black start. In addition, an automatic re-connect synchronization check was also demonstrated. Through the end of 2024 and early 2025, the project is continuing to wrap up testing and completion of measurement and validation of microgrid performance and benefits to the campus.
The Issue
Academic campuses are particularly interested in maintaining critical functions in the event of a grid outage, notably during and after a disaster event. The functions primarily support the students, faculty and staff but could provide support to the broader community. Microgrids have the potential to provide important resiliency benefits, especially in an area prone to disasters such as wildfires; however, it is difficult to justify their cost on resiliency alone and to build a business case for the development and deployment of a microgrid.
Project Innovation
Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) will demonstrate a microgrid on campus. This project will integrate three types of distributed energy resource (DER) elements: solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, energy storage, and load reduction devices and load control systems, all managed by a single microgrid controller. The goals of this project are to meet 40% of the campus electricity requirement with emissions-free PV solar power, to reduce the campus peak load, to optimize energy use, to provide support services to the surrounding grid, and to create a highly resilient power system benefitting the campus and the community. This project will demonstrate the environmental, economic, and resiliency benefits of a highly flexible campus microgrid. Operational objectives encompass demonstration of power flow, load control, and energy storage in a large multi-building campus, operating at appropriate scale and in actual operating conditions.
Project Benefits
This project will result in advancements in the deployment of a microgrid, including the use of storage technologies, adaptive load management, and the monetization of microgrid assets while providing community support facilities in times of need. This project will also demonstrate coordination of multiple large energy storage devices with different dynamic capabilities. By demonstrating a local approach to stabilizing utility grid frequency, the microgrid will be transformed from a source of load transients to a point of stabilization reaching far beyond the point of interconnection.
Affordability
The microgrid will reduce costs for the school by lowering peak demand charges and energy costs through on-site generation and storage. It will also reduce costs of lost operation by allowing the campus to remain open for classes during grid outages. The project will benefit the utility and ratepayers by providing local voltage support and frequency regulation, thus allowing the distribution grid to rely less on centralized local power electronics.
Reliability
Power quality will be improved on both the college campus and local distribution system through demonstration of dynamic frequency regulation and voltage control technologies. With the ability to provide both real and reactive power and to respond autonomously to changing grid needs, the project will be capable of providing grid stabilization to the local distribution feeder. The project will provide back-up power to the school in the event of an outage.
Safety
The project will provide back-up power to the school campus in the event of grid outages, thereby improving the safety of staff, students, and potentially local residents.
Key Project Members
David Liebman
Subrecipients
Worley Parsons
Center for Sustainable Energy
Stem Inc
SunPower Corporation, Systems
PXiSE Energy Solutions LLC
Match Partners
SunPower Corporation, Systems
Sonoma County Junior College District/ Santa Rosa Junior College
