University of California, San Diego
IN-2: Innovation 2

Real-time energy monitoring is at the heart of UC San Diego's Smart Grid, a campuswide collection of complex yet efficient energy systems and tools that work in tandem with the national grid to integrate distributed energy resources. Through its partnership with EDSA and Viridity, UC San Diego can monitor and re-optimize its microgrid hourly to account for fluctuations in usage, weather forecasts and pricing. UC San Diego's collaboration with SANYO to lead to the next generation of solar energy systems and energy management is the first agreement of its kind that SANYO has made with a university in the United States. The UC San Diego Smart Grid self-generates 82 percent of its power from two 13.5-megawatt gas turbines, one 3-megawatt steam turbine and one 1.2-megawatt solar installation, producing electricity, heat and cooling at a higher degree of efficiency than the local utility and at a lower cost. As of January 2011, UC San Diego contracted and is installing an advanced power system optimization and energy market optimization capability for this smart grid. This system, according to Viridity Energy, employs ” autonomous, real-time dispatch of distributed energy resources to integrate large volumes of PV into the UC San Diego microgrid.” They added that the “project will aim to overcome significant technology and regulatory barriers to enable wide-scale deployment of distributed solar generation to meet the California Solar Initiative (CSI) goal of 3,000 MW of installed PV.” Byron Washom, Director of Strategic Energy Initiatives for UC San Diego stated, “With UC San Diego’s growing renewable energy portfolio, Viridity Energy’s optimization solutions will allow us to develop a set of previously undocumented best practices, which will result in rates and incentives that will trigger new customer adoption behaviors while ensuring grid reliability, energy reductions, and new revenues. As both an energy consumer and an educator, this project will allow us to blend those two roles and develop new approaches that will optimize our own energy assets and create a pathway for more widespread adoption.” UC San Diego looks forward to continuing efforts to lead in innovative SmartGrid solutions.