Concentric Power Inc., an energy technology company deploying intelligent microgrids throughout California, and Gonzales Electric Authority (GEA), established by the city of Gonzales to oversee its new municipal electric utility, executed an energy services agreement to deliver wholesale electric power via a community-scale microgrid in and around the Gonzales Agricultural Industrial Business Park.
The microgrid will initially have 35 MW of capacity to provide locally generated, resilient and sustainable power to the Agricultural Industrial Park, which houses processing facilities for some of the country’s largest fresh vegetable and wine producers. It will also meet the clean energy requirements of the city of Gonzales’s Climate Action Plan.
Concentric Power designed the intelligent microgrid to integrate a mix of 14.5 MW-AC of solar energy, 10 MW/27.5 MWh of battery energy storage and 10 MW of flexible thermal generation, all of which will be managed by the company’s Advanced Microgrid Controller.
The system will allow the park to island from the wider energy grid, ensuring that end users have reliable, high-quality power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even when facing planned or unplanned grid outages. The microgrid will also include a privately owned substation that will allow energy and capacity services to be sold into the California electricity grid.
In the heart of the Salinas Valley the city of Gonzales formed GEA to help attract and retain a strong agriculture and industrial base as well as to protect companies doing business there from unplanned power outages and poor power quality. The project will support continued economic development and job creation to further build the city’s tax base. With the Agricultural Industrial Park currently one-third occupied, the ESA allows for the power infrastructure to expand and meet growing demand.
The $70 million project will be funded primarily by Concentric Power, with supplemental funding from GEA and the Gonzales Municipal Electric Utility (GMEU) towards ownership of the distribution infrastructure. Concentric Power will develop, design, build, operate and maintain the microgrid assets, including both generation and distribution. The distribution assets will be transferred to GMEU. The initial term of the ESA is 30 years, and the project is expected to break ground in mid-2021 and be ready for service in 2022.
Concentric Power will also be providing engineering, procurement, construction, and long-term services to the project, and has plans to build a Network Operations Center, field office and shop in the Park to support its work in the region.
