New online tool calculates solar PV and battery storage (solar+storage) capacity for  emergencies 
 

About the REopt Lite 

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) free online tool allows anyone to enter in a building’s information to estimate how much solar PV and battery storage (solar+storage) capacity would be needed to keep critical loads powered during an emergency. The REopt Lite web too helps users  (ie;  building owners, energy managers) to:

-evaluating the economic viability of grid-connected PV and battery storage at a site,
-finding system sizes and operational strategies to minimize energy costs, and
-evaluating system sizes that maintain critical loads through a particular outage period.

The features allow users to assess prices and benefits of a solar+storage system optimized to power essential services. These capabilities can determine resilience and economic goals for installing solar + storage through comparison within the easy-to-use interface. Information about the building such as its address and electricity prices is what’s needed. The model gives concurrent, multiple technology integration and optimization capabilities to help organizations meet their savings and performance goals. Formulated as a mixed integer linear program, it suggests an optimally sized mix of renewable energy, conventional generation, and energy storage technologies; estimates the net present value of implementing those technologies; and provides a dispatch strategy for operating the technology mix at maximum economic efficiency.

Reviewing their capabilities

The ability to fine-tune details and calculate the optimal solar+storage system sizing to fulfill theses objectives:

Financial benefits. Adding storage into the equation makes things more complex. For commercial customers, the benefit of adding battery storage is to decrease demand charges. Demand charges range from 30 to 70 percent of a monthly utility bill for commercial customers. Batteries target and manage periods of high electricity demand, resulting in savings. 

Resilience benefits. Meeting resiliency goals is an issue to building owners. Buildings can maintain critical loads powered when the grid goes down. While it can be challenging to place value on improved resilience, there’s much benefit to keep a business open; facilities like medical clinics and emergency shelters, keeping equipment functioning to potentially prevent loss of life. REopt Lite allows users evaluate conflicting goals in a simple comparison. The REopt Lite tool has the ability to assign and adjust a value representing avoided outages. With this feature, it’s possible to assess what the benefit of improved resilience may be worth to a building owner or community. An additional feature allows users  to add existing on-site generation, like a diesel generator, into their resilient design evaluation.These and other enhanced resilience capabilities were developed in collaboration with Clean Energy Group through its Resilient Power Project and supported with funding from The Kresge Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program and Solar Energy Technologies Office.

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