Commitment to Sustainability

One of the world’s oldest and most elite academic institutions aimed to reach net zero emissions by 2050, powered by 100% renewable energy. The goal centered on enhancing generative output and overcoming renewable energy production inconsistencies by adding battery storage.

Challenge

The addition of battery storage to the university’s generation assets significantly increased the asset’s complexity in four interconnected areas:

• Cost-effectively utilizing battery storage based on existing asset generative output and university load requirements
• Optimally charging and discharging the battery to minimize supply disruptions while protecting asset longevity
• Maximizing the return on trading activity
• Complying with local market rules
• Timeline: 3-month pilot

Solution

The first step was to engage the asset using system telemetry for visibility and predictive asset management. The project team utilized Asset Monitor for real-time monitoring to detect patterns of underperformance and address underlying issues. The next step was to design a dispatch strategy to optimize power output and usage in support of trading activity. The team developed and selected a trading strategy based on volumetric and price risk tolerances, while profit simulations were conducted for energy arbitrage in day-ahead and real-time markets.

Armed with renewable asset data and custom trading strategies, the team turned to Automatic Trader. The platform’s energy trading solution used market, load, and generation forecasts to inform trading strategies that captured value between day-ahead and real-time markets. Automatic Trader ingested the asset data and newly designed trading strategy to generate automatic smart bids, recover maximum Federal Investment Tax Credits, participate in the CAISO Energy and Ancillary Services Markets, and comply with California Resource Adequacy Rules.

Result

• TIMELINE realized
• FIRST academic institution to utilize hybrid renewable energy solar and storage capabilities in CAISO

The university is using the project’s success to accelerate plans for further renewable energy investments and place it on track to meet its net zero emissions goal for 2050.