KAISER PERMANENTE | ONTARIO, CA
First Renewable Energy Microgrid to Automatically Island and Support Hospital Emergency Power
SYSTEM:
2MW SOLAR, 9MWH
BATTERY, 1MW FUEL CELL ,
6MW DIESEL GENERATORS, CHARGE BLISS CONTROLLER
COMMISSIONED: Q1 2 0 2 3
STATUS: PENDING
In 2019, Faraday Microgrids was awarded an $8.35MM grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to build the first renewable energy microgrid capable of sustaining the Critical branch of a hospital’s power system for 10 hours or more. Not only will this be the largest capacity healthcare microgrid built to date in California, but it will also be one of the largest in the Nation.
This design has been executed with full OSHPD/HCAI engagement and approval. Perhaps most importantly, it has led to direct changes in the approach to supplementary energy resources for emergency power at hospitals that is expected to be reflected formally in the upcoming code cycle. This will be the first Renewable Energy Project in California to incorporate solar, fuel cell, batteries, and existing diesels in microgrid design and operation. This will also be the first system allowed to supplement existing diesel back up and significantly reduce fossil fuel consumption. In terms of revenue, this will be the first microgrid connected to a hospital to offer the option of ancillary utility services. The solar, batteries, and fuel cell will be interconnected directly into the hospital emergency bus and, therefore able to provide power to the entire emergency system.
