Essential Power Support for the Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center using Long Duration Batteries within a Renewable Energy Microgrid
Charge Bliss, Inc.
Recipient
Irvine, CA
Recipient Location
37th
Senate District
73rd
Assembly District
$8,120,308
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
Despite delays through COVID, this project is in the last stages. The site construction is complete; the 9 MWhs of Eos Batteries have been installed on site, the transformers and switch gear, which were delayed, have been installed. Initial "cold" testing began at the end 2023. Last minute added requirements from the interconnection agency delayed the project well into 2024. Conditional PTO in 2024 allowed "hot" commissioning and testing to begin. Full PTO was granted early 2025 as final commissioning activities began. Moving forward with plans for measurement and verification activities.
The Issue
Integration of longer duration energy storage into renewable energy microgrids faces several hurdles. First, the value of the systems have not been demonstrated. Information is needed on the economics and environmental benefits of these systems to provide day-to-day energy and greenhouse gas reductions. Second, the control of novel energy storage systems has not been validated to ensure that they can provide long duration support to a facility, particularly during an outage.
Project Innovation
The team will demonstrate a 10-hour flow battery system combined with solar PV and a microgrid controller to support the Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center. This builds on a prior EPIC project at a hospital in Richmond, CA and allows a direct performance comparison. The recipient will measure performance by energy production, round-trip efficiency, demand reduction, islanding frequency, island duration, and ancillary services. The project will show financial benefit through energy savings as well as ancillary services. Environmental benefits will emerge directly through reduction of on-site backup diesel generation and indirectly from reduction of power from the grid. Strategies to mitigate Duck Curve impacts will be demonstrated. The system will be tested for the ability to serve nearly 100% of hospital loads for 12-hours or more. The team will further develop the microgrid controller to utilize machine learning, self-diagnosis and healing, and optimize generation and storage.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
Deployment of a 8MWh/11-hour flow battery with a 2.2MW solar array and integrated by a microgrid controller will be connected to the hospital's critical power. The team will evaluate long-term battery performance and provide direct comparison with lithium-ion technology installed at the Richmond hospital from the prior EPIC project. The team will evaluate various scenarios of energy time-shifting, demand management, ancillary services, and facility islanding, to determine economic performance and reduction of GHG production.
Affordability
The system project will produce up to 4.1 GWh/year, or 123 GWh lifetime of clean renewable energy. This translates to an estimated savings of $328,000/year or $9.84 million over the lifetime of the system. Peak load reductions are estimated to provide an additional $132,000/year and $3.95 million over the system lifetime.
Key Project Members
Mark Handy
Steve Gabbitas
Subrecipients
Charge Bliss Construction California, Inc. DBA Faraday Microgrids
Mazzetti, Inc.
DC Energy Services
Golden State Power, LLC
ConTech CA
Troy Brown Consulting
Nhu Energy, Inc
KPC Group
Match Partners
Charge Bliss, Inc.
Charge Bliss Construction California, Inc. DBA Faraday Microgrids
Kaiser Permanente National Facilities Services
