Oncor’ Technology Demonstration and Technology Center is located just outside Dallas, Texas, at its 400-acre general services headquarters. Here at the headquarters are both a meter shop and a transformer repair shop. At the Technology Center, you will find a hybrid microgrid that is built on fast switching technologies that enable the Center to take advantage of 106 kW of solar panels, 200 kWh of battery storage, a 65-kW microturbine and more.
Check out this photo gallery and you will get a sense of the components that make up microgrids. The industry is finding that stand-alone microgrids are losing their allure as they are proving too expensive and must also handle all contingencies. A better solution is to work together to develop a hybrid microgrid, providing flexibility while maintaining the ability to operate independently of the grid.
The smart microgrid's generation assets consist of:
- A 104-kW solar carport PV array
- A 2-kW ground-mounted PV array
- A 65-kW microturbine that runs primarily on propane (for reasons of cost and availability)
- Two 175-kW diesel generators and a 200-kW diesel generator
- A 45-kW gas-reciprocating generator
- A 25-kW/25-kWh S&C PureWave CES Community Energy Storage unit
- A 200-kW/400-kWh Tesla Li-ion batter storage unit.