Reliability of emergency and standby diesel generators: Impact on energy resiliency solutions

Journal Article · Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Applied Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114918· OSTI ID:1659849

Marqusee, Jeffrey ^[1]; Jenket II, Donald ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Emergency diesel generators are the most common form of backup power for critical loads when the grid fails and are most often deployed as stand-alone generators (<2000 kW) tied to individual buildings for hospitals, emergency services, military bases, ports, airports, industries, and commercial facilities. Understanding the finite reliability of emergency diesel generators during continuous operation is critical for energy planners, managers, and end-users. A new analysis of two large non-public emergency diesel generator operational data sets shows that commonly used reliability metrics are inadequate to predict the performance during a grid outage. Additional metrics addressing the likelihood of an emergency diesel generator to be available at the time an outage starts, successfully start and carry load, and constantly run for the duration of the outage are needed to predict the continuous run-time reliability of emergency diesel generators during a grid outage. This is the first analysis of the reliability of modern generators that follow standard maintenance protocols commonly used for backup power and these new metrics are shown to be dependent on the level of emergency diesel generator maintenance with values that can vary by more than an order of magnitude. Even using the new metrics for well-maintained emergency diesel generators, the analysis shows that the single emergency diesel generators configurations are only 80% likely to provide power for the duration of a two-week grid outage.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOD; USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1659849
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1615445
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5K00-75142; MainId:6674; UUID:9d4d394d-b2ea-e911-9c29-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:13495
• Journal Information: Applied Energy, Journal Name: Applied Energy Vol. 268; ISSN 0306-2619
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
backup power
commercial emergency diesel generator
critical load
diesel generator reliability
emergency diesel generator
grid failure
grid outage
reliability metrics
stand-alone generator