Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

35 There is a cost to the CHP resiliency and reliability benefit. It's more expensive to design, interconnect, configure and operate a CHP system that can island and operate independent of the grid. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) pioneered the development of a CHP Incentive design that mandated this capability. New York State determined that if public funds were to be invested in CHP, then the beneficiary of that incentive ought to operate a CHP system that delivers the social benefits that accrue from the ability to operate during emergency events. New York went one step further. For sites that were designated as "Centers of Refuge", there was an additional bonus payment from the State. In the following sections we will explore the emergence of resiliency as a public policy priority and the rationale for investing public funds in resilient CHP and microgrids. Case Studies of the Resiliency Benefit of Appropriately Designed, Configured and Operated CHP Prior to Superstorm Sandy, some buildings and campuses had made investments in islandable CHP systems. As noted above, following the August 2003 Northeast blackout, NYSERDA had the foresight to require that systems receiving public support in NY, ought to be designed to run during power outages. Forward thinking decision makers and facility managers at campuses such as Princeton, Fairfield, The College of New Jersey, Cornell, UMASS/Amherst, NY Presbyterian and Montefiore in NY, all had made investments in islandable CHP systems. In a report prepared, 14 case studies of CHP were identified and described. The following case studies are included in this report: • South Oaks Hospital–Amityville, NY, 1.25 MW reciprocating engine • Greenwich Hospital–Greenwich, CT, 2.5 MW reciprocating engine • Christian Health Care Center–Wyckoff, NJ, 260 kW microturbine • Princeton University–Princeton, NJ, 15 MW gas turbine • The College of New Jersey–Ewing, NJ, 5.2 MW gas turbine • Salem Community College–Carney's Point, NJ, 300 kW microturbine • Public Interest Data Center–New York, NY, 65 kW microturbine • Co-op City–The Bronx, NY, 40 MW combined cycle • Twentynine Palms–Twentynine Palms, CA, 7.2 MW gas turbine • Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge, LA, 23.7 MW gas turbine • Nassau Energy Corporation–Garden City, NY, 57 MW combined cycle • Bergen County Utilities Wastewater Plant–Little Ferry, NJ, 2.8 MW reciprocating engine • New York University–New York, NY, 14.4 MW gas turbine • Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation–Stratford, CT, 10.7 MW gas turbine 11 Each case study tells a compelling story of the reliability and resiliency benefits of CHP systems that have been designed to run isolated from the grid and provide power (and heat) during emergency events.

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