Burrstone Energy CENTER CHP Microgrid

Burrstone Energy CENTER CHP Microgrid,  Utica, New York

To meet the needs of a group of neighboring institutions, Cogen developed – and owns and operates – this CHP project which provides highly efficient and reliable cogenerated energy. This is the first CHP Plant of its size in Upstate New York to export power back to utility.

CHP Program Manager: Cogen Power Technologies

Design-Builder: Bette & Cring

Neighboring institutions Faxton-St. Luke’s Healthcare, St. Luke’s Nursing Home, and Utica College recognized a mutual need for a reliable, environmentally-friendly energy source to reduce costs and demands on the local utility grid. With opportunities for clean energy funding, developing a groundbreaking cogeneration microgrid serving all three became an option.

Cogen set the multilayered development process in motion, facilitating communications, approvals, and decision-making with the clients, technical consultants, utilities, and government agencies.  One of the biggest challenges was obtaining approval from the Public Service Commission to cross a public road to deliver power from the plant to Utica College – a lengthy 10-month process – before the project could get underway.

Today, the $15 Million CHP plant creates both heat and chill water (for the hospital); and electricity for all three facilities: the hospital (300 beds);  the nursing home (200 beds); and the college (3000 students).

With three 1100 kW and one 334 kW natural gas reciprocating engines, the plant has an output capacity of 3.6 MW of 13.2 kV electricity, 7000 lbs/hr of 85 psig steam, and 700 gpm of hot water, and can export excess electricity back to the grid through the hospital’s and college’s utility services.

The microgrid reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 4,000 tons annually, provides power stability, reduces demand on the local utility, and saves hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in utility costs.

The plant is operated by Cogen Power Technologies, who manages the day-to-day operations and maintenance; purchases commodities; and provides administration of the plant.

Cogen formulated an “Economic Dispatch Algorithm” which factors gas pricing, facility loads, maintenance costs, contract terms, and hourly National Grid and NYISO kWh pricing and export kWh rates to makes hourly decisions on how to most economically operate the plant.

In Spring 2019, VOLTTRON™  – (Developed by the Department Of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) implemented a new cloud based Automatic Economic Dispatch System. The new system enhances opportunities under NY Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), including the ability to respond to new 24 hour day-ahead and hour ahead export pricing from National Grid Distributed System Platform (DSP) Pilot at Burrstone. Additionally, this system will provide more accurate load forecasting and dispatching of assets, is easily expanded to include Solar PC and Battery Energy Storage, and helps insure we are reducing our Customers annual utility costs as much as possible.