Island Power: In January 2021, Revolution Global planned a 3,600 kW/80,000 sq-ft greenhouse expansion in Delavan Illinois. The local utility’s grid power would take three years and cost $25 million, so Revolution Global approached Altorfer Power Systems to find alternative facility power solutions.
Altorfer developed an optimized 15kV site power system and successfully procured the primary electrical equipment including six transformers, facilitating installation in alignment with the project’s 15-month startup schedule beginning March 2022, at a total cost of $8.5 million.
The microgrid includes (4) 1,475 kW fully autonomous packaged power systems interconnected to the Delavan facility via a collector bus as shown in Figure 1. Three (3) power systems are sufficient to meet the facility peak demand with one (1) spare unit for maintenance and reliability (n+1), shown in Figure 2. This also included a 2,000 kW diesel for emergency backup power and the Beacon Power 320 kW flywheel system. The flywheel system is needed to correct facility load swings and power quality issues.
The proposed Microgrid would provide for:
- Islanding or power for the facilities served
- Resilient power supply
- Back-up power via extra engine
- Auto black start capability
Microgrid controller to manage site demand, minimize system downtime, auto black start, and automatically optimize generator dispatch to minimize operating costs in real-time and to provide intelligent monitoring.
Power System Improvements: In 2024 Caterpillar launched a suite of new containerized power systems to significantly reduce power system costs, reduce lead times and footprint, lower emissions, provide fast start, and improve reliability. Facilities can now secure islanding power equipment within six months at significantly lower cost leveraging the Cat DG Compact. See Figure 3.
Grid Connect: When the local utility completes system upgrades needed to supply the required 3.600 kW peak facility demand, the site power system can be repurposed for Dispatchable Standby Power. In this mode, the site power system, operating in parallel with grid power, is utilized to reduce grid power costs by 50%. This is accomplished by dispatching the site generation to avoid all peak power costs. This includes:
- Zero out and eliminate PJM ISO capacity and transmission charges.
- Reduce utility demand, distribution, and state regulatory charges.
- Reduce retail power costs by 60% through purchasing lower cost real-time with site generation to hedge price spikes.