New Microgrid Opens at Manufacturing Facility in Hingham, Mass

Oct. 20, 2017
Hingham, Massachusetts is the site of new microgrid located at the Russelectric manufacturing facility and part of the company’s innovation center.

Hingham, Massachusetts is the site of a new microgrid located at the Russelectric manufacturing and innovation center.

The microgrid serves Russelectric’s 120,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and also acts as a hands-on demonstration area.

Interconnected with the Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant, the microgrid includes an emergency diesel back-up generator, a 200-kW AC rooftop solar photovolataic system, a 69 kW/137 kWhr Lithium-ion energy storage system, and the Russelectric Distributed Energy Controller (RDECTM), which manages the system.

Dynapower supplied the integrated energy storage system for this site — its MPS-250 inverter is mated to Samsung batteries.

Part of the Russelectric Innovation Center, the microgrid features a hands-on, interactive demonstration room with full data visualization and control capabilities, live controls and switchgear.

In test mode, the microgrid is switched to serve onsite load banks that simulate customer demand to test equipment performance in normal, high-stress, and failure scenarios.

In normal operation, the microgrid supports the company’s Massachusetts facility with back-up power and peak shaving capabilities.

“Facility energy managers today have unprecedented onsite power generation and load control options: backup diesel generation, fuel cells, combined heat and power, solar PV, storage, UPS, and more. Getting these options to work together, both during normal operations and in emergencies, requires robust power control solutions,” said Ed Malley, vice president of technology and innovation at Russelectric.

He added: “Most rooftop PV systems, for example, are designed to shut-down when the grid goes off-line. Our rooftop PV system is designed to remain on and to power our facility in off-grid, island mode.”

[clickToTweet tweet=”New #Microgrid Opens at Manufacturing Facility in Hingham, Mass @Dynapower” quote=”New Microgrid Opens at Manufacturing Facility in Hingham, Mass”]

Massachusetts Clean Energy Center CEO Stephen Pike, who attended a ribbon cutting for the facility Thursday described the microgrid as an example of  Massachusetts innovation.

“The development of this test center, which can analyze real-time scenarios and monitor performance data, will help drive technology breakthroughs and provide a hub for microgrid innovation,” he said.

Learn more about Massachusetts microgrids. Join us at Microgrid 2017, which will be held November 6-8 in Boston.

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

Twitter: @ElisaWood

LinkedIn: Elisa Wood

Facebook:  Microgrids

Header

Design for Purpose Microgrids – Water and Wastewater

Nov. 3, 2023
Michael Boswell, vice president, power & infrastructure at Concord Engineering discusses microgrid designs for water and wastewater.

Clean Energy Microgrids_cover

Staying the Course on Clean Energy in a Time of Societal Disruption

Concern is growing that an economic downturn could stifle progress on clean energy. How can clean energy microgrids help society stay the course through their use and management...