Microgrids Part 1: Make It a Grid, But Micro

by Alexander "D'Angelo" D'Angelo on 3/11/24 3:29 PM

Are you ready to revolutionize the way we power our communities and data centers? Picture a future where electricity isn't just distributed from centralized grids but generated and managed locally. Welcome to the world of microgrids, battery energy storage systems, and electronic isolation and controls. 

While it is fun to use these buzzwords and speak about the possibilities the future holds, why does this matter? Simply put, resources. Whether it is capital, space, power, water, or talent, we live in a resource constrained world. As our technology becomes more advanced, its demands for power and cooling will increase. This puts a large strain on our already fully loaded power grids, with the states ¹most at-risk being Texas, Michigan, Ohio, New York, and California. Texas is not interconnected to the national grid, which puts it at risk for downtime due to a lack of redundancy. New York and California, on the other hand, are strained due to their large populations and the decommissioning of traditional power plants. Additionally, with an increase in legislation supporting EV vehicles, the strain on the grid can be too large especially in inclement weather (i.e. hot and cold) increasing risk of downtime. 

Like it or not, soon we will have to supplement power and storage solutions that are smart and reliable enough to be treated as de-centralized grid assets. Let us dive deeper into the realm of Microgrids. 

What is a microgrid? 

Microgrids represent a paradigm shift in how we think about energy distribution. These localized grids can operate independently or in conjunction with the main grid, offering resilience and flexibility in the face of outages and disruptions.  

microgrid picSo, what are some of the basic components that we’d expect to see in a microgrid? Renewable energy, most commonly solar (PV), wind, or, in some cases, hydropower. Next, we would expect to see an inverter to convert the energy from the renewables to a usable form for the loads that are connected. After that, a BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), isolation with controls, a fuel cell, and/or hydrogen electrolyzer.  

While these individual components, alone, could not support an outage, when deployed together, the sky is the limit for “islanding” yourself from utility. These assets could be on a commercial site, outside of a housing community, a data center, and beyond. These are the building blocks for these locally deployed decentralized grids. 

Imagine a community powered by its own microgrid, seamlessly integrating renewable energy sources, like solar panels and battery storage systems, into its infrastructure. These technologies not only reduce reliance on fossil fuels but also pave the way for a more sustainable future.  

Outside of the communities, integrating renewables into their energy portfolio, there are mission critical operators who look to add redundancy to their utility connection and further control their uptime parameters. Mission critical operations are businesses that cannot suffer an outage even for a second. These customers are mostly data centers, healthcare providers, departments of transportation, utilities, etc.  

Furthering the point of living in a resource-constrained environment, these providers are seeing that the addition of high compute applications are driving their energy consumption up higher every year. To combat the risk associated with simply relying on utility, they deploy uninterruptible power supplies, generators, and, now, renewables and BESS systems to allow them even more flexibility during utility loss. 

Market Overview 

As AI and other high performance compute practices start becoming the norm in the market, the utilities won’t be able to adapt quick enough. Standard per rack power density in hyperscale and co-location data centers ranges from 10 - 20 kW of consumption. And, in the next 3-5 years, market analysis predicts for this to shoot to 50 - 300 kW/rack of consumption. While this can increase revenue per sq/ft tremendously in colocation data halls, it is also introducing challenges in cooling and power requirements. Liquid cooling, active rear door heat exchangers, and cold plates, are poised to address these challenges on the heat rejection side. However, the power requirements are an entirely different beast to deal with.  

ai-microgridEnter, the need to BYOP (Bring Your Own Power). This is a facility level strategy that is creating and managing your own distribution, generation, and energy asset deployment. This can be accomplished through a variety of solutions. Utilizing DERs (Distributed Energy Resources), which is a fancy terminology to describe the energy generating and storage assets that comprise a microgrid, facilities can manage peak demand, add layers of redundancy to their systems, and ultimately, completely island themselves from the grid.  

While a completely renewable and stand-alone data center is not happening in the next 1-2 years, it is just over the horizon, and it is critical to start having important conversations as these systems require large intellectual investment, planning, and capital to get them off the drawing boards and into the real world.  

While the matters mentioned above mainly concern data center providers, an energy intensive activity that more and more consumers are participating in, every day, is… Electric Vehicle (EV) charging. Subsequently, never have we seen before, parking garages and multifamily home developments requiring the addition of new transformers to support 1000 amp and above services. Super chargers and 220V standard EV chargers require a large amount of power to charge vehicles quickly. Understandably, this strains the utility provider, especially considering that most charging is occurring simultaneously. What this looks like is a large group of EV users who commute to work and charge during the day, and another other group of users who charge exclusively at home during the night. As adoption increases, these routinely popular charging times become more and more problematic for utility providers.  

So, as the US continues to push automakers to electrify their fleets, the demand on the grid and surrounding infrastructures cannot keep up. Critical equipment necessary to install these new services have lead times measured in years, while the cost to retrofit existing parking structures to support charging can add up quickly, pricing many providers out of the market.  

microgrid-products

The need for more readily available power is here, and we are just barely knocking on the door of what is possible, as we will need to, as an adapted society, further expand upon the utilization of already existing technologies. And, as mentioned, a BESS and PV Farm separately will not achieve much, but the value lies in linking them together into a smart controllable system. As we continue to be creative with implementing these already existing solutions together, then we can iterate and create more efficient systems, which allows for more of a mainstream adoption across the industry. 

Looking Ahead 

Plain and simple, for most operations these solutions are currently cost prohibitive. However, let’s keep in mind a key learning from the ramp up of the solar industry; Utilities and governments are willing to subsidize and incentivize companies that choose to implement these solutions ahead of the curve. Currently, in Utah, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) is rolling out an incentive program that is either per kWh or a one-time upfront incentive for the installation of a BESS. These are not small sums either, with some programs covering up to 75% of the cost of the BESS.  

One may ask, what is the angle for RMP? In short, the more DERs that are connected to the grid, the more redundancy is built into the utility framework. In the case of a contingency, these assets can all be controlled as one, spinning reserve for RMP. During normal operation, owners can enjoy peak shaving benefits, as well as outage protection. A truly rare “win-win” scenario. As peak demand charges continue to increase, ROI numbers start to make sense on 12- and 24-month timelines.  

Additionally, RMP is utilizing “Make-Ready” incentives to support the adoption and installation of EV charging. These incentives could cover up to 100% of the cost associated with powering EV chargers in commercial and residential applications. 

To further this discussion of the future, we can start to think of abstract solutions such as on-site hydrogen generation using natural gas. We can replace diesel gensets with hydrogen fuel cells, as hydrogen is three-times more energy dense/liter than diesel. We are even close to the deployment of small, self-contained, 300 – 500 MW nuclear reactors that can be deployed in remote environments and do not require service for 60 years.  

So, when it comes to reliability and cost savings, all signs point to BYOP. 

While the adoption of microgrid solutions may currently pose financial challenges, the tide is turning as incentives and awareness grow. Just as the solar industry witnessed exponential growth fueled by supportive policies, the trajectory of microgrids and BESS suggests a similar transformation in the energy landscape. As we stand on the cusp of this paradigm shift, it is necessary to initiate conversations and investments today for a more sustainable and resilient tomorrow. The journey towards decentralized, renewable energy is not merely an option; it's a strategic imperative for businesses and communities alike. 

If you enjoyed this high-level overview of the current market of microgrids, please join us for part two of this blog series, which will be released the last week of March. We'll do a deep dive on use/case and applications, and we’ll expand upon DVL’s current product offerings that support this infrastructure and qualify for utility incentives. Additionally, we will provide real-life applications to this equipment.

Have a question or comment about this blog?

Reach out to blog author Alexander "D'Angelo" D'Angelo, Power Systems Sales Engineer,  (based out of our Salt Lake City office) at ADangelo@DVLnet.com.

¹ https://www.generac.com/be-prepared/power-outages/top-5-states-where-power-outage-occur

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Topics: data center design, data center outages, sustainability, microgrids

New Infographic! SmartRow DCR Intelligent Integrated Infrastructure

by Marissa Donatone on 12/29/15 8:31 AM

Infographic_Smart_Row.jpg

Learn More Here

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Topics: Emerson Network Power, Data Center, data center design, DVL, monitoring, smart solutions, IT, smartrow

Emerson Network Power Announces Water and Energy-Saving Liebert® DSE with Liebert EconoPhase Economizer Approved for California Data Centers

by Marissa Donatone on 10/6/15 9:27 AM

Designed to save millions of gallons of water and increase energy efficiency by up to 50 percent

liebert-dse-mediumColumbus, Ohio [September 16, 2015] – Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson, (NYSE: EMR) and the world’s leading provider of critical infrastructure for information and communications technology systems, today announced that the California Energy Commission (CEC) has approved the use in California data centers of the Liebert® DSE thermal management system with the Liebert EconoPhase Pumped Refrigerant Economizer. The Liebert DSE system represents a break-through technology that uses no water and saves up to 50 percent of thermal energy, through its patented design and advancedLiebert iCOM™ controls.  

“The Liebert DSE system is a great environmental steward. When used in a typical mid-sized data center of one megawatt load, the Liebert DSE is significantly more efficient than current cooling systems, and eliminate the use of around four million gallons of water each year. If deployed broadly in California data centers, the Liebert DSE with EconoPhase could save hundreds of million gallons of water every year,” said John Peter Valiulis, vice president North America marketing, thermal management, Emerson Network Power.
 
The CEC has approved the Liebert DSE system with Liebert EconoPhase as a prescriptive economization option, as part of Title 24 of the the CEC’s 2103 Building Energy Efficiency Standards For Residential and Non Residential Buildings, meeting the code’s requirements for energy efficiency and its prescriptive requirements for economizers.
 
The Liebert DSE system eliminates the need for any water in the heat rejection process and associated chemical water treatment, and it eliminates the risk of exposure to harmful waterbound bacteria. In addition, the Emerson modeling for the CEC compliance program demonstrated an 8 to 10 percent reduction in the data center Time Dependent Valuation measure, compared to the water economizer prescriptive option. The Liebert DSE system design also reduces or eliminates several of the power components associated with water economizers. In actual usage, the entire Liebert DSE system has demonstrated thermal system energy savings of up to 50 percent over older legacy systems.
 
For more information on Emerson Network Power’s Liebert DSE with EconoPhase or other products and solutions, visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com.
 
 
About Emerson Network Power
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson, is the world’s leading provider of critical infrastructure technologies and life cycle services for information and communications technology systems. With an expansive portfolio of intelligent, rapidly deployable hardware and software solutions for power, thermal and infrastructure management, Emerson Network Power enables efficient, highly-available networks. Learn more at www.EmersonNetworkPower.com.
 
About Emerson 
Emerson, based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial, and consumer markets around the world. The company is comprised of five business segments: Process Management, Industrial Automation, Network Power, Climate Technologies, and Commercial & Residential Solutions. Sales in fiscal 2014 were $24.5 billion. For more information, visit www.Emerson.com.
 
Media Contact:
Vince McMorrow
614-383-1622
vince.mcmorrow@fahlgren.com
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Topics: data center infrastructure, data center design, DVL, energy, DC Power, critical air conditioning, HVAC, Thermal Management, capacity, cooling, Data Center efficiency, ASHRAE, power, water cool

ECO-Friendly Choice in Single Phase UPS

by Miguel Rascon on 3/26/15 2:46 PM

ECOblog

“Environmental protection”, “high efficiency” and “energy savings” are topics of very high concern for both large corporations, as well as for individuals since these aspects are part of everyday life and may generate significant cost savings in both cases.

This is also valid for UPS ranging from large ones protecting substantially vast datacenters, to small ones with just a few kilowatts that safeguard a network or single cabinet in more modest settings.

The ECO mode – also known as energy saving mode or high efficiency mode depending on the UPS manufacturer – is currently highly discussed within the industry. The debate primarily focuses on on-line UPS and on large UPS. Nevertheless, energy savings and efficiency are extremely important aspects also in small and micro power UPS (typically from 500 VA to 10 kVA). The reasons are the same as for large power systems: savings on energy costs and lower environmental footprint.

Choosing a UPS in the most proper way, means considering the criticality of the application that needs to be protected, as well as evaluating the energy used by the UPS to protect the load against disturbances and interruptions.

Here I would like to highlight the “inherent ECO mode” that can be found in line interactive UPS products (VI or Voltage Independent according to EN 62040-3).

In this type of line interactive UPS (VI), the power stream flows from the input through several protection devices (overcurrent, overvoltage, etc.) and mainly through an Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) transformer.

The AVR is in charge of providing output voltage regulation, in order to minimize voltage variations in AC supply and ensure a regulated voltage according to the load tolerances.

Because of the high efficiency of the AVR (typically around 98% or 99%) and of the protection devices through which energy flows, as well as the lower quantity of electronic components used in this type of UPS topology, a high performance line interactive UPS can provide an efficiency level higher than 96% at full load. A perfect example of this is Liebert PSI UPS, which makes use of line interactive technology and therefore of AVR, and which can reach the efficiency levels mentioned above. As said, this operation mode is inherent to line interactive UPS topology, and its high efficiency is also ensured in wide load operating conditions and AC mains variation. While ECO mode in on-line UPS is operating in a smaller input voltage range, line interactive topology is able to operate in high efficiency mode during most input voltage changes while still being capable to provide some output regulation.

When comparing a line interactive UPS with a double conversion online UPS there are many aspects to be taken into consideration such as stepwise or pure sine wave inverter, transfer time, size, etc. However one of the main differences is exactly that line interactive UPS feature “inherent high efficiency” because of the VI technology and the use of AVR as mentioned earlier.

The energy savings associated to it are highly appreciated even if we are talking about single phase UPS meaning UPS which range from 0 to 10 kVA, because:

1. Daily saving  just  a  few  watts  in  continuous UPS operation 365 days a year amounts to a significant total yearly saving

2. In applications such as campuses or big corporations where many of these small UPS devices are used contemporarily, the few watts saved daily per each device increase even more the daily and yearly total saving and reduce the total campus or corporation expenditure.

To provide an example, assume a load of 2.5 kW being protected by a UPS. Such load may correspond to a cabinet with several servers for enterprise applications or to a wiring closet distribution panel. Such UPS can work in line interactive mode (assuming 97% efficiency) or operate in double conversion mode with 90% efficiency, using a rough estimation. The difference in power losses and thus energy savings, will be around 200 W. Assuming an electricity cost of 0.138 €/KWh and doing a quick calculation on yearly savings, you can get a value of around 272 € saved per year. This amount can be multiplied for five years and the total saving will reach nearly 1,500 €.

So it will be clear by now that additional to traditional ECO mode (typically used in double conversion online UPS in general and large UPS in particular) there is an inherent ECO mode used in single phase UPS, specifically line interactive ones.

This grants significant savings to customers as the line interactive technology is inherently highly efficient and as the UPS making use of it are typically used daily all year long so in the long term even little daily saving amounts to a considerable total figure.

And what about ECO modes in on-line UPS in this small UPS range? Is there any difference or advantage? There is an interesting story too.

Interested in reading more blogs by Emerson Network Power? FOLLOW THIS LINK.

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Topics: Data Center, Green IT, data center design, data center infrastructure management, UPS, Thermal Management, DCIM, Uptime, monitoring, the green grid, energy efficiency

Take a Virtual Tour of Liebert's SmartRow and SmartAisle

by Marissa Donatone on 2/26/15 9:00 AM

smartaisletour smartrowtour

It's time to take two great virtual walkthrough tours of Liebert's SmartAisle and SmartRow solutions for Data Centers! 

The SmartAisle infrastructure solution optimizes infrastructure deployment and management with an intelligent row-based system that integrates data center racks, power, row cooling, aisle containment, monitoring and control technologies for spaces with up to 40 racks.

The SmartRow infrastructure solution solves a problem all too common to IT management: addressing IT needs without building new data center space. Think of the SmartRow approach as a data center in a row--a simple, fully integrated row-based infrastructure. The SmartRow offering combines up to six data center racks--with precision cooling, UPSs, power management, monitoring and control technologies, and fire suppression--all in an enclosed system.

CLICK HERE To take the Tours! 

For more information on Smart Solutions visit: Emersonnetworkpower.com

 

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Topics: rack, Emerson Network Power, data center infrastructure, data center design, Containment, Green Technology, Efficiency, cooling, Liebert, smart solutions

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