Boulder 2010 Load Profile in HOMER

In order to adapt HOMER to a load the size of Boulder's - peaking at 250 MW in summer - the team first borrowed electric load data for every hour of the year from the city of Fort Collins. This information can be imported quickly into HOMER and it served as a stand-in until the Boulder data was available. Next, the team had to calculate the wind and hydro resources, and calculate the financial impacts of various tax credits for wind and solar outside of HOMER.

When all these critical assumptions were loaded into HOMER, it was easy to model different scenarios and different combinations of solar, wind, hydro and natural gas in the HOMER software, and analyzing the emissions and cost impacts over twenty years.

Finally, the HOMER data on the cost of power was imported into another financial model that examined the implications of creating a municipal utility. The municipalization option is on the ballot this November in the City of Boulder.

The REMOTE project will categorize islands as different as the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, Caribbean islands, and Inuit villages in Northern Canada. Islands not only differ in their renewable resource base but also in the ways that they use power and their existing governance structures. While renewable energy may be cost-effective for islands or remote areas, it is harder for them to attract capital and technical expertise to build and maintain new energy projects.

HOMER Energy software is uniquely suited for the design, resource assessment and preliminary financial modeling of islanded electric grids. The HOMER Energy staff has experience developing comprehensive energy solutions for island utilities and remote areas, taking into account myriad social, geographical and technical factors. HOMER Energy will lead the phase of the project that defines renewable potential for different types of remote areas; then the HOMER software will compare the financial feasibility of different hybrid renewable systems for a variety of different types of islands and remote areas around the world. The ultimate goal of the REMOTE project is to provide reliable decision support tools for policy makers to encourage the development of hybrid renewable microgrids on islands or in remote areas.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students (EAPSI) is a flagship international fellowship program for developing the next generation of globally engaged U.S. scientists and engineers knowledgeable about the Asian and Pacific regions. The Summer Institutes are hosted by foreign counterparts committed to increasing opportunities for young U.S. researchers to work in research facilities and with host mentors abroad. Fellows are supported to participate in eight-week research experiences at host laboratories in Australia, China, Japan (10 weeks), Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan from June to August. The program provides a $5,000 summer stipend, round-trip airfare to the host location, living expenses abroad, and an introduction to the society, culture, language, and research environment of the host location.

The 2012 application is now open and will close at 5:00 pm proposer's local time on November 9, 2011. Application instructions and information concerning benefits, eligibility, and tips on applying are available online at www.nsfi.org. Or, phone tollfree 1-866-501-2922.

A great rule of thumb if you are starting to model a hybrid system is to size the aggregate capacity of the fuel-fired generators to be slightly larger than the system's peak electrical load. This will improve reliability of your system, while still allowing renewable sources and batteries to provide the bulk of your energy needs.

The converter (inverter) does not generally need to be sized to meet the peak electrical loads. Of course, if you want HOMER to consider a renewable-only system (i.e. no generator), then the converter must be sized to meet peak load you must allow some capacity shortage. Do you have a tip for HOMER users? If so, please share it with us in the HOMER users community here.