Rescuing the Rescuers: Microgrid-enabled Resilience for Montgomery County's Public Safety Headquarters

April 6, 2:45 to 3:45 pm

Online

Approved for 1.0 general GBCI CE & 1.0 AIA LU

 

Speakers

 

Fran Phillips, Senior Engagement Specialist, Pepco

Michael Yambrach, Capital Energy Projects, Montgomery County Department of General Services

Roger Huggins, Associate Director - Engineering for the Pepco Energy Savings Program, Pepco

 

Description

 

As the impacts of climate change worsen, the frequency of superstorms and other environment-related outages are likely to increase. How we respond to this increase in events and during these times of crisis is critical. Microgrids have been gaining traction to help maintain operations during such events, but with the rapid development of distributed energy resource technologies and the control platforms that enable them, developing and implementing microgrids is easier said than done. In this presentation, we will explore how Montgomery County developed their first microgrid for their Public Safety Headquarters. This facility is a critical hub within the County for the police and fire departments as well as homeland security and numerous other emergency response functions. The presentation will provide a walkthrough of the problems the County was looking to solve, how the microgrid design took shape, technology considerations, design trade-offs, and an overview of the microgrid components and controls.  We will share project economics, including how the Pepco Energy Savings for Business Programs provided incentives to assist with the upfront cost, as well as lessons learned throughout the development and commissioning processes. Finally, we will share some of the project’s successes, including national and international awards and how this project has served as a case study for several additional microgrid developments. 

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Learning Objectives

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1. Learn about microgrid basics: components, technology mixes, and controls 

2. Understand lessons learned in the implementation phase of a microgrid 

3. Learn what makes CHP an attractive element of a microgrid project

4. Learn how the system has performed since it was commissioned

5. Learn about DER ownership structure that can financially enable microgrid investment 

 

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