Consumers load profile glossary
Details about the Consumers load profile section of the GridLauncher
Project mapping
The location of the microgrid project is where the electricity is generated, therefore where the energy generation assets have been deployed.
The consumers area is the neighborhood of the microgrid project. This neighborhood is limited to a 2 miles radius in the phase 1 of the project. For electricity reliability and resiliency matters, the Community Microgrid is off the grid. It means that a distribution expert is contracted by the project anchor to deploy the distribution grid, connecting the energy generation directly to the local community of electricity buyers.
This area scales in later phases, expanding the size of the generation capacity alongside the reach of the distribution grid.
Looking at a pilot use case in Puerto Rico: ICC microgrid project
ICC company is the anchor of a microgrid project in Tallaboa, Penuelas. The energy is generated on the property of ICC. It is where the microgrid project is located.
The electricity is distributed from where the energy is generated, therefore ICC in this example, to the neighbors. The neighbors are within 0.7 miles of ICC.
Consumers load input
Looking at the neighborhood of the microgrid project, who are the potential buyers of electricity and how many of them? To facilitate this step, GridLauncher offers 4 categories of consumers.
Rookie subscribers limited to a total of 10 customized consumer cards
Pros subscribers get unlimited customized consumer cards
Residential: 3 default household consumer cards + add customized cards
Commercial: 2 default restaurants, stores and big box cards + add customized cards
Anchor: the sponsor of the project (customized cards)
Industrial: manufacturers (customized cards)
Zooming into the map helps determine the consumers in the neighborhood.
Click a card to open it, see the default assumptions and edit the customized cards
Click + in a consumer type to add a customized consumer card
How many small households? medium size? large households? How many restaurants? grocery stores? shops? warehouses? larger businesses?
Is the Community Microgrids program applicable to small projects? Not really. There's a minimum number of electricity buyers for this program to make sense.
Example of a minimum size of consumers to maximize this program:
Customizing a consumer, for instance a large steel manufacturer
When estimating the electricity consumption profile of consumers, getting the electricity data (for instance LUMA bills or in-house consumption data) provides a more realistic result.
For more than 1 custom consumer of the same type, either enter the average for each month and enter the amount of consumers or aggregate all consumption levels for each month and enter the amount as 1
Click MOARRR POWER to scale the chart up
Using the CSV template to upload the consumers data
The CSV template can be used in any consumer customization interface:
Download the CSV template
2. How the CSV template works
1 CSV file =
1 individual customized consumer or, 1 group of aggregated individual customized consumers
Through this template, a consumer or a group of consumers is described by its average consumption in one of three ways: BY WEEK, MONTH OR YEAR
1 column = 1 hour
1 row = 1 day = 24 hours
Orange area = 1 week
(Orange + yellow) area = 1 month
(Orange + yellow + brown) area = 1 year
By Week
To represent what an average week looks like for the consumer, fill the template with only the first 7 rows. This typical week will be used as the structure for creating the consumer, effectively copying the week throughout the year. (Recommended for low seasonality regions, less accurate estimate)
By Month
To represent what an average month looks like for the consumer, fill the template with the first 30 to 31 rows. This typical month will be used as the structure for creating the consumer, effectively copying the month throughout the year. (Recommended for low seasonality regions, more accurate estimate)
By Year
To represent what an average year looks like for the consumer, fill the template with 365 to 366 rows. GridLauncher will then use this year as the structure for creating the consumer thus defining the year directly. (Recommended for mid-high seasonality regions)
Community Microgrid Consumption Profile Result
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