The Urgency of Power Resiliency: Microgrids

By Ron Beck, Energy Transitions Thought Leader, Sustainability Expert.

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Are you an investor building data centers, a refinery or chemical producer, or a mineral processing enterprise? If so, power reliability is one of your most critical concerns today, or should be.

Two refineries in the midwestern states of the USA suffered power losses in the first half of 2024, and for one it took two weeks to fully recover to full production. For the other, it was three weeks elapsed time to inspect the key process units and restart production. In the interim, the price of gasoline went up $.20 per gallon in the Chicago area, and flared CO2 significantly impacted carbon emissions for the year.

YESTERDAY, a microgrid was an interesting point of discussion.? A nice-to-have, but not viewed as necessary by the executive operating in the G-20 world of the mature power grids.? Most highly industrialized regions rarely lost power, the grid was stable, and electricity rates were reasonable for power-hungry assets who bought power in bulk contracts.?

TODAY, electricity supply is suddenly top-of-mind and front page of the news.

NOW, you can operate your asset on an 埃思本软件 Microgrid Management System? (MMS), which will enable you to ensure your electricity reliability,?confidently increase the level of electrification in your assets, and actively manage and optimize the utilization of electricity for operational excellence and sustainability.

[ Register for our upcoming webinar on Microgrids ! ]

Consider a few industry insights:

• Bloom Energy says that over 76% of commercial and industrial power customers lose power 1-2?times per year!
• The Wall Street Journal reported in August, that the capacity of power-hungry data centers globally is expected to double by 2030, from 60GW to 120GW, leading to an increased power demand.? The grids in the highly developed eastern US will not be able to handle that level of growth as soon as three years out from now, according to analysis conducted by data center investor Digital Bridge.
• In the US alone, in the first seven months of 2024, there were at least three major refinery shutdowns directly caused by?power losses.? In two of those three instances, it took more than two weeks for those refiners to ramp full production back up.? In the interim, local gasoline prices were impacted by as much as?0.20 cents per gallon.
• In each of these cases, one of the impacts of power loss was immediate surges in flaring, for process safety reasons, leading to significant annual impact on those assets carbon emissions.
• In a recent meeting we had with the VP of Reliability for a major Asia-based refiner, when asked what his major reliability concern is for his refinery portfolio, his answer was, “power outages.”
• The opportunity for the typical large industrial site that has onsite co-generation and/or battery storage units, with over 10MW power demand, can generate revenue of over $700K per year through active participation in power markets.

SYDNEY TRAINS

In Australia, Sydney Trains is one of the companies that has taken electricity certainty into their own hands, by implementing an AspenTech Microgrid Management Solution. Sydney trains operates 240 8-car trains, with the trains operating every 5-10 minutes during daytime hours and every 10-20 minutes over night. The serve 377 million riders per years. The trains are all electric powered, with the lines running at 1500V DC power, and the controls highly automated. By any definition, as the main means of public transit in Australia's largest metropolis, Sydney Trains operates critical infrastructure.

The Sydney Trains Microgrid solution operates a high-voltage electric distribution network with 165 substations and section huts that is essential for providing reliable power to its railway assets of 76 crossings, 4000-plus signals and 2000-plus turnouts.

Is the reliability and cost of your electricity supply?a risk today and tomorrow?

Many industrial enterprises say that that risk is real today and in the immediate future. Executives responsible for high power consuming, power sensitive assets are beginning to see over-dependence on the regional power grid is an increasing aspect of that risk.? Microgrids provide a key solution to mitigating that risk today.

To help industrial companies move from simple control of their electricity and captive power generation within their industrial sites, to proactive management and optimization of their electric power resources, a microgrid management system is becoming a crucial digital tool.

AspenTech is now offering a software package designed for industrial users that is based on more than 30 years of electric utility software experience. Built on top of the AspenTech OSI monarch SCADA? platform, which is installed at over 400 utilities worldwide, AspenTech MMS ensures power reliability and helps optimize your onsite energy system.

?[ Register for our upcoming webinar on Microgrids ! ]