Seminar 22 - How to Thrive During Your Next Natural Disaster: Three Operational Combined Heat and Power Case Studies

Track: Earth, Wind & Fire
Sponsor: 1.10 Cogeneration Systems
Chair: Timothy Wagner, Ph.D., Member, United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT

Designing for extreme weather events and other possible disasters often requires thinking beyond the norm. Building design and materials are critical for resilient operation, however, assuring building systems operate when the electric grid is down requires increased scrutiny of onsite power systems. Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo provide informative case studies on the CHP installation economics, normal operation and performance during a major natural disaster and the impact of operations during these events.

1. Hurricane Katrina and Jackson Memorial Hospital's 3.5 MW CHP System
Gearoid Foley, Member, Integrated CHP Systems Corp., Princeton Junction, NJ
Jackson Memorial Hospital was one of the few facilities that operated throughout Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath when the electric grid was down. The hospital's main source of power during this period was their CHP plant which provided electric as well as thermal energy in grid isolation mode. This seminar provides insight into the design of the CHP system for this facility as well as general design guidelines for resilient CHP applications at hospitals that allow for near normal operation through natural disasters.

2. Superstorm Sandy and Princeton University's 15 MW CHP System
Richard Sweetser, Life Member, Exergy Partners Corp., Herndon, VA
The heart of Princeton's microgrid is a gas turbine CHP system capable of producing 15 MW. On sunny days, this power is supplemented by a 4.5-MW solar field. Princeton's microgrid normally operates connected with the local utility. The initial motivation to build a CHP plant was to reduce lifecycle costs, the school also benefits from a much lower carbon footprint and higher reliability. During Super Storm Sandy Princeton's critical research projects and computing services continued uninterrupted by the storm. This seminar describes the CHP based microgrid, its normal operation, economics and performance through Super Storm Sandy.

3. Winter Storm Nemo and Frito- Lay's 4.2 MW CHP System
Bruce Hedman, Dr.Ing., Entropy LLC, Alexandria, VA
Frito-Lay North America, Inc. installed a gas turbine CHP system at its food processing plant in Killingly, Connecticut, in 2009. Designed to be electric load following, the system meets 100% of the plant's electrical power needs and provides a majority of the annual steam need. The system has kept the plant running through numerous outages since its installation, including Winter Storm Nemo, the February 2013 blizzard that paralyzed much of the Northeast. This seminar describes the decision process to install CHP, and its performance through the storm that covered the area with three feet of snow.

Presented: Monday, January 22, 2018, 8:00-9:30 AM
Run Time: 90 min.

This is a zip file that consists of PowerPoint slides synchronized with the audio-recording of the speaker (recorded presentation), PDF files of the slides, and audio only (mp3) for each presentation.