Hot Springs Microgrid
Objective
Our customer sought to enable the Hot Springs microgrid to provide reliable power during outages. Hot Springs has historically been impacted by power outages due to fallen trees and snow on its roughly 10-mile-long distribution line.
Approach
We performed studies for black start, microgrid protection, steady-state and transient analyses, etc., as well as software modeling. Our proven experience in conducting studies for island-mode microgrids helped us enable functionality such as black start and fault-level contribution improvement.
Results
The microgrid is supplying Hot Springs with clean energy during outages while providing additional grid benefits.
Our recommendations included:
- Adding a new grounding bank.
- Adding a recloser for the grounding bank.
- Replacing hydraulic recloser with electronic recloser to integrate with microgrid controller.
- Designed protection settings and schemes.
