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.
About the Author
Rick Bush
Editorial Director
Richard A. Bush is the editorial director of Transmission & Distribution World. Prior to joining T&D World as editor-in-chief in 1994, Bush worked at the Georgia Power Company Research Center (now NEETRAC) where he held engineering and management positions.
In June 1988, Bush received the Georgia Power "Engineer of the Year" award, and in 1994, he received the "Technology Applications Recognition" award from the Electric Power Research Institute. In 1996, he was awarded a Jesse H. Neal Certificate of Merit for editorial excellence.
Bush holds BSME and MSME degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and he is a senior member of the IEEE.