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.

ICC microgrid project location

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.

The Community Microgrid

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.

Use the map to view the buyers

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:

• A neighborhood of at least 30 medium sized households or

• A building of at least 30 medium sized apartments or

• At least 15 medium sized households or apartments + 1 restaurant + 1 grocery store

• At least 2 restaurants + 2 grocery stores

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:

1. 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

Understanding the Simulation Parameters

Average timeframe consumption: The estimated amount of electricity that the consumers of the community microgrid need to have available on average at any hour.

Timeframe: a month

Maximum power consumption: Also known as Peak Load Demand meaning the maximum amount of electricity that the community of consumers may demand if all appliances are turned on at the same time.

Total Consumers: The number of buyers of electricity connected to the microgrid.

Region: Where the community microgrid is located meaning where the project anchor had deployed the energy assets next to where the neighbors buying the electricity are located.

Understanding the Consumption levels (kWh)

KWh is the amount of watts consumed per hour. 1,000 Watts = 1 kW

Understanding the Breakdown by category (Annual)

This pie chart represents the estimated annual amount of electricity demanded by the consumers of the community, broken down in categories.

Understanding the Preview features

Print: The user and the persons invited to view the result of the Community Microgrid Consumption Profile can print a PDF or paper copy of it.

Share result: The user can share the result of the Community Microgrid Consumption Profile with other people.

Save and Continue: The user can save the result of the Community Microgrid Consumption Profile and unlock the next step to continue the project progress.

The project progress

Understanding the project progress

Each step of the GridLauncher must be completed to start the next step.

For a direct preview of the result of a step, click on the icon next to the button "Completed"