This Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) project “The Maximized Utilization of Renewables and Market Participation in a Reconfigured, Cyber-Secure Microgrid” was proposed and approved to potentially demonstrate tangible and intangible energy security and cost benefits using an upgraded energy management system for the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) at Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The objectives were to reduce local utility and power plant diesel usage at the U.S. Navy facility. It attempted to address the facility’s problem of not fully utilizing its photovoltaic (PV) array storage capacity.

PMRF’s advanced PV inverter functionality includes the ability to curtail generation, provide power factor support, ride through certain power grid disturbances, and provide other grid interconnection support capabilities. The Department of Defense (DoD) was installing significant levels of solar PV generation; these systems typically remain idle during utility power outages. System owners are either unaware or unsure of the benefits advanced inverter functionalities. PMRF’s six PV inverter functionalities were not enabled due to insufficient battery energy storage system (BESS) capability. The cost to enable these functions has decreased significantly, the benefits now typically far exceed the cost. BESS have evolved as economies of scale and competition force lower costs and improved performance. The systems have been applied in a wide range of applications, including both economic and power quality improvement purposes. The technology enables DoD to reduce utility energy purchases during normal operations by increasing the available energy produced by existing PV systems, and also use these PV arrays during electric utility system disturbances.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory analyzed an entire year of utility billing data to determine how an average day of islanded operation would perform. The fully connected panels on all solar PV systems, even with dynamic curtailment, generate an additional 837kWh of energy per day than they did in their previous baseline configuration. This reduces the energy required from the diesel power plant by 4.1%. This saves sixty gallons of diesel fuel per day and 1,346 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions per day among other emissions such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, unburned hydrocarbons, and particulate matter.

The results of this project can be used to influence DoD standards for microgrids and energy storage. Project components including requirements analyses, design tools, fully utilizing inverter capabilities, and process steps that are widely applicable across DoD installations having similar mission energy requirements as PMRF. Replication of the technology could result in significant energy cost savings, reductions in diesel fuel consumption, improved power quality, and stable grids at a wide range of DoD sites.