UDERMS iCommunity: Utility Managed Distributed Energy Resources Intelligent Community

This project includes a diverse set of approximately 7 buildings, including a large suburban apartment complex, downtown complex of mixed-use retail and apartment buildings, university laboratory and office building with a microgrid, a mass transit transportation center, and manufacturing building. PacifiCorp will evaluate the viability of strategic aggregation and deployment of distributed energy resource (DER) bundles in wholesale markets and provide data to support inclusion of this model in Integrated Resource Planning.

Illustrative Schematic of Project
Illustrative Schematic of Project
Giv Group Multi-Family Residences
Giv Group Multi-Family Residences
Soleil Lofts Multi-Family Residences
Soleil Lofts Multi-Family Residences
New Lite-On Level-2 EV Fleet Charging Area A of RMP Headquarters
New Lite-On Level-2 EV Fleet Charging Area A of RMP Headquarters
Utah State University ASPIRE Center
Utah State University ASPIRE Center
AO Smith CAHP Water Heaters at Citizens West
AO Smith CAHP Water Heaters at Citizens West
Electric Bus and EVSE at Utah Transit Authority Depot
Electric Bus and EVSE at Utah Transit Authority Depot
Project Lead
Rocky Mountain Power (PacifiCorp)
Planned location of buildings
Salt Lake City, UT and Logan, UT
Partners

Electric Power Engineers
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Utah State University
University of Utah
GIV Group
Utah Transit Authority
International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (iCast)
Open Systems International/ AspenTech
National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO)
Doglatin Media
Sonnen

Building types
More than 900 multifamily homes consisting of a commercial workplace (x1), light industrial manufacturing (x1), mixed-income urban multifamily (x3), luxury suburban multifamily (x1), research / higher education lab (x2), and a mass transit transportation center (x1).
New or retrofit buildings
New and retrofit buildings
Energy Efficiency Target
Most of the facilities are on track to receive at least 30% savings (compared to typical buildings)
Total load
N/A
Affordable Housing
Two facilities including three buildings, Project Open and Citizen’s West, offer mixed-income, multifamily residences and are proving that high-density, all-electric buildings can function at even cheaper cost than conventionally powered buildings. Of the 303 total housing units, 72% are considered affordable housing. These facilities are all-electric with EV chargers in the garage or outdoor parking areas.
DERs planned
150 kW Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) (x8), 175 kW Level DCFC (x2), 300 kW Pantograph DCFC (x3), BESS (x603), HVAC Heat Pump (x235), Water Heater Heat Pump (x30), HVAC (mini-Split) (x65), Level 2 EV Charger (x167), Solar PV (x10)
Flexible loads
Will vary by site. Most sites will have HVAC with heat pumps, and some will have tankless electric hot waters, and adaptive lighting will also be explored.
Coordinated controls
OSI DERMS is hosted at Rocky Mountain Power/PacifiCorp and communicates via OpenADR with a downstream EV aggregator and various participating buildings and via a DNP3 to the battery grid management system.
Grid issues addressed
This project will help defer capital expenses for distribution infrastructure upgrades that serve the community of buildings.
Grid services planned
This work will target peak load management, frequency support, and contingency reserves. The objective is to effectively integrate intermittent renewable resources, enhance resiliency and outage response at the distribution level, ensure resource adequacy particularly during periods of disruptive events.
EV Charging
There are three 300 kW Pantograph DCFCs and eight 150 kW DCFCs at the UTA Bus Depot for charging electric buses, and two 175 kW DCFCs at Utah State University for public / workplace charging. There are also 167 level 2 EV chargers that are installed at Citizen's West (x25), Project Open (x46), Packsize (x50), RMP (x43), and USU (x3) for workplace, public, and multifamily charging.
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