Renewable Energy Resources Connected Utility Microgrid for the Tulalip Tribes

Abstract

Microgrids increase resilience, sovereignty, and reduce carbon emissions by utilizing renewable energy resources. This paper explores the feasibility of installing a new microgrid at the Tulalip Tribes’ Administration Building. The building will act as a "resiliency zone" for the Tribes, for use as a shelter or command post during natural disasters. This microgrid will supply sufficient power generation and storage for the building while meeting the needs of the client for emergency event coverage and environmental impact. Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) are proposed as alternate resources, along with a pre-existing diesel generator for emergency power generation to build a sustainable microgrid. However, PV and BESS placement and sizing must be assessed properly before delivering it as an effective solution. This use case is not typical, as system constraints and operating conditions are unique from a Tribal community perspective. An extensive study has been conducted using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software to find a feasible case where all requirements were reached for the Tribal community and associated utility. All field equivalent datasets are being used to constitute the model in HOMER, and utility outage information is excised to perform as a backup during normal and extreme scenarios.