Smart Grid Today: UC San Diego

gears up for ’smart microgrid’

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – March 1, 2010 – The Univer- UCSD today tracks its grid using a “straight
sity of California at San Diego can’t claim to be a smart SCADA system” partly from Johnson Controls for
grid but it most definitely is a microgrid — with its building systems and from Schneider Electric for
own power generation, monitoring and security. energy, plus “a variety of other vendors we’ve
Microgrids are a key step toward achieving a smart brought in over time — a progression of different
grid, Kurt Yeager, executive director of the Galvin systems. We’ve been responsible for making sure
Electricity Initiative, told us last month. they communicate with each other,” he said. “Our
microgrid is very efficient but we’re going to have a
“We are a prototype for a small city for the future, a significant improvement in how we optimize our
microcosm of a society 20 years from now,” Rajesh resources.”
Gupta, a professor of computer science and engineering
who researches campus energy efficiency, told us The university has entered a power purchase
during a series of recent interviews. agreement for a 2.8 mw molten-carbonate fuel cell
that uses methane piped onto campus from a local
The 1,200-acre, 450-building campus, with a daily wastewater-treatment plant, Washom said. And it
population of 45,000, runs two 13.5 mw gas turbines, just concluded a solicitation for about 2.8 mw of
one 3 mw steam turbine and a 1.2 mw solar-cell on-campus power storage. Washom declined to
installation that together supply nearly 80% of the identify the technology used since the technology is
campus’ annual power, said a paper released last year so closely identified with the vendor and negotia-
by three computer science professors. The turbines tions are ongoing.
produce 75% fewer emissions than conventional gas
power plants, the university said on its website. For Under a contract from the state’s energy commis-
HVAC, it uses a 40,000 ton/hour, 3.8 million-gallon sion, UCSD is installing a new, “very sophisticated,
capacity thermal energy storage tank, plus three chillers very high-end” master controller — Paladin from
driven by steam turbines and five driven by power. EDSA of San Diego. Paladin will control and
monitor all UCSD generation, storage and loads
The balance of campus power — up to 10 mw — is plus hourly computing that should be used and to
bought on the open market under California’s deregu- what extent, to optimize a balance of economics
lated market and served by SDG&E. Campus-generated and environment. It can receive as many as 260,000
power is cheaper even than open-market power, since data inputs/second and is “very rigorous from a
UCSD’s heat, power and cooling systems are highly power-engineering point of view,” Washom said.
efficient, Byron Washom, director of the university’s
strategic energy initiatives, told us last week. To help direct Paladin’s decision, UCSD will use
VPower software from Viridity Energy of
The huge campus, four miles square, is linked to Conshohocken, Pa, that receives and processes
SDG&E by a single 69 kv substation, which “really dynamic market-price signals, weather forecasts
confines and defines the microgrid as everything and the availability of resources.
behind the substation,” Washom said.
Together, Paladin and VPower “will help us deter-
UCSD is building added energy storage and is working mine the optimal balance of which systems should
to improve its internal grid’s efficiency. be generating, how much we should be importing,
when we should be reducing load, whether we
should be charging or discharging energy storage,”

Page 1 Smart Grid Today: UC San Diego gears up for ’smart microgrid’
Washom said. “Paladin will understand how our We’ve been responsible for making sure they communi-
microgrid should be operating and when the grid starts to cate with each other,” he said. “Our microgrid is very
deviate, it can anticipate, analyze and take corrective efficient but we’re going to have a significant improve-
action.” ment in how we optimize our resources.”

Simulations using day-old data are slated to start in the

third quarter. Their estimated $2 million cost will be split The technology involves a “sky imager” that tracks the
evenly between the university and the California Energy movement and opacity of clouds. Mounted high on a
Commission. UCSD has applied to the California Solar building, it sees from directly overhead to the horizon, in
Initiative for $1.2 million in added funding to start live all directions, covering 25 square miles, Kleissl told us
operation. Friday. The imagers are 20-year-old technology, “but
everyone forgot about them and now we’re taking them
“I can’t wait to start simulating, as well as going live, back up,” he said. They were used in cloud-cover
with this system!” exclaimed Washom. “This is a major research but not solar forecasting.
advancement for us.”
Just as important are image-processing algorithms that
About 200 power meters on the main lines and at build- identify and track clouds, plus a database with many
ings’ main circuit breakers, track use minute-by-minute. thousands of examples of how clouds move, form, and
A website produced by the school’s Microelectronic thicken or thin. Using the technology on campus “is a
Embedded Systems Lab allows viewing power use microcosm of what a large utility feeder might need,”
graphically for the entire campus, selected schools and Kleissl said.
four mixed-use buildings. The computer science building
is metered by individual computer and monitor so those Knowing the output of a solar array an hour in advance
devices’ use can be viewed graphically. The building could help determine whether storage should be charging
meters are three-phase commercial-grade units from or discharging,” Washom added. “Right now we have no
Schneider Electric, sending data several times/second to smarts with which to control that algorithm.”
a central server over a wired network.
Efficiency is top job
The computer science building, with 750 PCs and a room
filled with servers, is measured more intensively. Meters Separately, the campus is embarking on its “number-one
on 15 separate circuits report power use by lighting, priority”: a $72-million, three-year energy efficiency
HVAC, plugged-in devices and servers. program, Washom said.
Solar work wins DOE cash
UCSD participates in SDG&E’s DR program and has
Some of the $1 billion in on-campus research every year shown the ability to cut grid imports by 40%. On a daily
is devoted to power and DOE just gave UCSD a grant to basis, the campus load shifts 7-14% of its daily on-peak
model smoothing the effects on the distribution system demand by using chilled water for its HVAC from its
from the ramping up and down of PV output as clouds thermal energy tank, charged overnight by five chillers.
pass overhead. Abrupt boosts or drops in solar output can During the San Diego wildfires in 2007, UCSD went
unbalance a grid’s load, whether the grid serves a campus from a 3 mw importer to a 4 mw exporter in under 30
or a community, Washom said. EDSA’s Paladin will minutes, to support the local grid when transmission
assist in this effort. access was threatened, Washom said.

UCSD today tracks its grid using a “straight SCADA

system” partly from Johnson Controls for building
systems and from Schneider Electric for energy, plus “a
variety of other vendors we’ve brought in over time — a
progression of different systems.

Page 2 Smart Grid Today: UC San Diego gears up for ’smart microgrid’
The campus’ single substation can put power back About EDSA Micro Corporation
into the grid but UCSD does not do so regularly and EDSA is a privately held developer of software
Washom said he does not foresee the time when it solutions for the design, simulation, deployment, and
will. “We would need metering and would have to be preventative maintenance of complex electrical
in communication with … [the California ISO] as a power systems. Founded in 1983, the Company’s
participating market load. But our interest is more in Paladin® software products are used by thousands of
meeting campus demand than in being a wholesale commercial, industrial, governmental, and military
power generator.” customers worldwide, to protect more than $100
billion in customer assets. Headquartered in San
Freedom from grid unlikely Diego, Calif., the Company’s worldwide operations
include 30 sales, distribution, and support offices
Despite its prolific generating power, whether UCSD located throughout North America, South America,
can become electrically self-sustaining is apparently Europe, Asia, and Africa. For more information
a matter of debate. The school aims to achieve that about EDSA and its products, visit www.edsa.com.
goal by mid-2011, according to the three computer
scientists’ paper. But Washom said UCSD will likely
never be completely grid-independent.

“The campus has a $200 million-per-year building

expansion program, so every year we increase our
demand,” he said. “Each time a professor here wins a
supercomputing contract award, for which we’re
constantly bidding, it could increase our demand by
6 mw. It would be presumptuous to say at some point
we will be 100% grid independent, because all it
takes is that one successful scientist to upset our
supply-demand balance.”

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