Integrating Run-of-the-River Hydropower into a Microgrid for Reliability
The Idaho National Laboratory is studying integrating run-of-the-river hydropower into a microgrid to make the city of Idaho Falls’ municipal power distribution more reliable. The $1 million, 2-year collaboration with the city of Idaho Falls was prompted by a December 2013 outage that left the city blacked out for hours in subzero temperatures. The lab’s facility includes a real-time digital simulator that allows researchers to simulate different real-world situations and better understand how microgrids interact with the grid, said Rob Hovsapian, lead engineer for INL’s Energy Systems & Technologies Division.