Graduation Date
Spring 2017
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Program
Master of Science degree with a major in Environmental Systems, option Energy, Technology, and Policy
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Arne Jacobson
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Steven Hackett
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Charles Chamberlin
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Microgrids, Technical potential, Economic potential
Subject Categories
Environmental Resources Engineering
Abstract
Microgrids are being investigated across the U.S. as a solution to support greater reliability, resiliency, and security of electricity supply. This thesis evaluates the potential of developing technically feasible and economically viable microgrids for selected customer categories in California.
Customer categories selected for this study are deemed suitable for microgrid applications by previous studies. For a customer to be technically suitable for microgrid adoption, this study defined a minimum energy requirement threshold. In order to determine the economically viable potential, a benefit-cost analysis was done to assess microgrid benefits compared to the base case of exclusive reliance on grid electricity. The fraction of the technical potential that was found to clear the benefit-cost analysis was considered as the economic potential.
A total of 1,188 sites in California with a cumulative microgrid hosting capacity of 7,450 MW were found to be economically feasible. The study also found that customers with one MW or more peak load are economically viable for hosting a microgrid. Availability of external funding can make microgrids economically feasible for more customer groups, even for customers with peak load less than one MW, which otherwise are currently at the margin.
It is acknowledged that the customer categories selected in this study represent a subset of the possible customer categories. The cost of microgrid development, and especially the cost of microgrid controller, is highly uncertain as microgrids are a relatively new market. Hence, the emphasis of this thesis was to demonstrate a methodology for estimating of microgrid development potential in California rather than determining precise values.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Singh, Pramod, "Technical and economic potential of microgrids in California" (2017). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 33.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/33