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Publication Date

2022-05-09

First Advisor

Juidth Cardell

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Engineering

Keywords

Carbon neutrality, power systems, clean energy, battery, resilience, engineering

Abstract

Smith College has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, largely by redesigning the district energy system including heating and on campus electrical generation. The current backup power system, a cogeneration gas turbine, will no longer be as efficient in the proposed system and could be replaced with a battery that is not dependent on fossil fuels. This research project investigates the economic viability of using a grid scale battery to provide backup power to campus in place of the existing gas turbine. It also examines several other services that a battery could provide including frequency regulation and demand response. To do this, Smith’s electricity system was modeled using a single node model in the Distributed Energy Resource Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM) from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The model results show that a battery can reasonably be used to provide backup power and that participating in frequency regulation for the New England power grid can generate significant net profits offsetting the battery cost. This initial investigation supports further consideration of battery backup power on Smith campus.

Rights

©2022 Sarah Robson. Access limited to the Smith College community and other researchers while on campus. Smith College community members also may access from off-campus using a Smith College log-in. Other off-campus researchers may request a copy through Interlibrary Loan for personal use.

Language

English

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