Solar+ Storage Integrated Energy Management Demonstration in a Supportive Housing Facility
Innovations and energy savings for multi-tenant, low-income housing using solar+storage technology.
The Regents of the University of California - Riverside
Recipient
Riverside, CA
Recipient Location
31st
Senate District
61st
Assembly District
$1,622,131
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The mixed-use supportive housing building was completed in 2020, and has initiated occupancy in early 2021. UC Riverside is replacing the storage system to meet certification requirements for interconnection. The solar PV system is being procured in 2022, and the full system is expected to be commissioning by end of Q2 2022. The research team has submitted their Smart Inverter Performance Assessment Test Plan and will be drafting their System Impact Assessment and Validation Plans while the replacement battery system is being procured.
The Issue
Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) integrated energy management activities have the risk of potentially increasing peak demand and peak utility loads. Behind-the-meter photovoltaic (PV) generation is also uncontrolled by the utility. Unmanaged energy production and storage creates additional challenges for utility energy management and distribution. Pairing PV and BESS with controls and managed loads has great potential, but community-scale PV and BESS solutions at multi-family residences have struggled to be adopted in California, as there have been limited demonstrations that such systems can provide benefits to the building owner, tenants, and the grid simultaneously.
Project Innovation
The project deploys a 100 kW high-performing solar PV system, a 150 kW/150 kWh li-ion battery energy storage system, a smart inverter, and an advanced energy management platform to demonstrate different use cases and showcase the advanced functions of smart inverters. These components will be integrated to optimize flexibility in demand side energy management through load shifting, solar PV self-consumption, emergency back-up, demand response, and ancillary grid services. The proposed system will be able to autonomously meet demand response and energy management requests while critical loads at the building are maintained, minimizing operational impacts. It will also realize energy and demand charge cost savings to the building owner and tenants.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project integrates BESS and PV technology with advanced control algorithms and smart inverter autonomous functions. The solar+ system uses high efficiency solar panels that are DC coupled with Li-ion BESS and demonstrates various smart inverter functions to provide autonomous grid services and energy management practices under a variety of operational conditions. The team is assessing the impact smart inverter-provided grid services and solar + storage operation have on each other. The project provides BESS and PV technology integrated with an energy management system to support diurnal energy loads. This project implements utility-initiated demand response functions and creates an architecture that allows expansion to future power regulation and potential wholesale market participation.
Affordability
This project will reduce peak energy demand by integrating PV generation with battery energy storage to shift building and community loads. The reduction of peak energy use will lower consumer's energy bill.
Reliability
This effort will demonstrate the commercial feasibility to deploy many MWh of dispatchable energy integrated in a PV/BESS configuration with smart inverters to manage energy use through load shifting and emergency back-up.
Key Project Members
Alfredo Martinez-Morales
Subrecipients
LINC Housing Corporation
Masters Electric
Match Partners
SunPower Corporation
LINC Housing Corporation
The Regents of the University of California - Riverside
Socomec, Inc
