FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Calmac’s ice-based energy storage technology was recently implemented into the Naval Post Graduate School’s Integrated Multi-Physics Renewable Energy Laboratory (IMPREL) in Monterey, California. The IMPREL microgrid project uses various forms of energy storage to store energy in the form it will be needed in, and a unique multi-physics approach to optimize the use of on-site sources of renewable energy. Calmac’s ice-based energy storage provided the microgrid with durable and smart technology for flexible use of solar and wind to store cooling.

“Ice-based energy storage is the low-hanging fruit of the industry,” said Mark MacCracken, CEO of Calmac. “Sun and wind are forms of pure energy that, without being paired with energy storage, are either used or wasted. Luckily, energy storage can easily be integrated into our buildings and power grid.”

Energy storage is an integral technology for microgrids that can act as a single entity that can connect to the power grid or work independently from the grid in what is called “island-mode.” The multi-physics approach used by the IMPREL matches demand to the supply of electricity created by on-site photovoltaic panels and wind turbines. To achieve independence from the rest of the grid, energy is either used as it is generated or stored for later use when output dips. This differs from the traditional approach of a power grid where supply is dictated by demand. In fact, the traditional approach does not account well for the intermittence of renewable energy output, which often leads to times when end-user demand surpasses renewable output and vice versa.

“Applying the multi-physics approach to our microgrid project, over the traditional microgrid approach, allowed for the use of fewer renewable energy sources to meet demand, reducing size, costs, and the amount of unused energy,” said Dr. Anthony Gannon, assistant professor, mechanical and aerospace engineering department, Naval Postgraduate School. “Using thermal energy storage allowed for the project to greatly reduce its costs and improve efficiency by storing the energy in the form that it would be ultimately used in. Based on the project’s operation, we feel like this design could easily be scaled-up for larger applications.”

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As microgrids go, this project is big. The $12.4 million microgrid scheme devised a consortium that includes Emera Maine, Nova Scotia Power and Toronto Hydro will comprise three projects, all of them linked together by Opus One software.

Emera Maine will combine solar power, battery storage and backup diesel generators at its operations center in Hampden, which controls its grid and its interactions with the New England ISO.

Nova Scotia Power will build a microgrid with wind power and both grid-scale and residential energy storage. And Toronto Hydro plans to integrate a series of microgrids designed to help distributed energy resources support local grid operations.

The overall project aims to demonstrate the ability of microgrids to trade power resources, provide load relief and help lower voltage in order to save money.

Together the consortium intends to show how advanced technology can be used to provide technical and economic signals to manage the exchange of electricity, which has been called “transactive energy.”

“This project not only will lower energy costs and increase reliability …. it will help us to manage distribution feeder load in the area, which will potentially defer the need for distribution investments,” Alan Richardson, president and chief operating officer of Emera Maine, said in a statement.

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The US Senate passed a bipartisan “Energy Modernization Act” last week. Despite its many shortcomings (Katie Herzog, writing for Grist, describes the bill as an “…energy modernization bill that would have been modern in 1980”), the bill has one feature particularly noteworthy for those of us in the microgrid world – it explicitly calls out microgrids as part of the future US energy solution, for both basic electricity delivery in remote communities and resilience for the grid-connected communities that make up the vast majority of US households.

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