Abstract:
Microgrids are emerging to mitigate the degradation in grid resiliency and reliability resulting from an increasing frequency of grid outages. Because microgrids incorporate a local source of power generation, the production of electricity is shifting from a centralized to distributed topology, thereby installing power generation resources and the concomitant emissions into heavily populated urban air sheds and residential communities. In this paper, the air quality and public health impacts of a mass deployment of microgrids in an urban air shed are assessed. Candidates to become microgrids are identified for both the near- and long-term deployment, and two microgrid scenarios are considered, differing by the 24/7 prime source of power: (1) combustion gas turbine (CGT)-based microgrids and (2) zero-emission fuel cell (FC)-based microgrids complemented by solar PV and battery energy storage. Spatially and temporally resolved emissions from the microgrids are input to an air quality model and assessed for health impacts. The results show that (1) a mass deployment of CGT-based or FC-based microgrids in both the near- and long-term has a relatively small impact on air quality, (2) the health impacts are nonetheless significant for CGT-based microgrids due to the large and dense population of the area, and (3) disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted with the deployment of CTG-based microgrids. For example, near-term deployment of CGT-based microgrids results in an increase in the incidence of premature mortality (1 to 5 incidences per month) and an increase of $33 to $56 million per month in health costs. Deploying zero-emission FC-based microgrids mitigates the adverse health impact, prevents several incidences of premature mortality, and results in saving of ~$36M per month rather than a cost per month of ~$50M.
摘要:
微电网正在出现,以减轻由于电网中断频率增加而导致的电网弹性和可靠性下降。因为微电网包含了当地的发电来源,电力生产正在从集中式拓扑向分布式拓扑转变,从而将发电资源和随之而来的排放安装到人口稠密的城市防空洞和住宅社区。在本文中,评估了在城市空气棚中大规模部署微电网对空气质量和公共卫生的影响。为近期和长期部署确定了成为微电网的候选人,并考虑了两种微电网场景,与24/7主要电源不同:(1)基于燃烧燃气轮机(CGT)的微电网和(2)基于零排放FC的微电网,由太阳能光伏和电池储能补充。微电网在空间和时间上解析的排放被输入到空气质量模型并评估对健康的影响。结果表明:(1)在近期和长期大规模部署基于CGT或FC的微电网对空气质量的影响相对较小,(2)由于该地区人口众多,人口稠密,因此对基于CGT的微电网的健康影响仍然很大,(3)基于CTG的微电网的部署对弱势社区的影响不成比例。例如,基于CGT的微电网的近期部署导致过早死亡的发生率增加(每月1至5例),医疗费用每月增加33至5600万美元。部署基于FC的零排放微电网减轻了对健康的不利影响。防止一些过早死亡的发生,并导致每月节省约3600万美元,而不是每月节省约5000万美元的成本。