Village of Chefornak – 2021 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The Village of Chefornak (Village), along with its community utility, Naterkaq Light Plant (NLP), will purchase, install, and integrate a 500-kilowatt (kW)/677-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery energy storage system (BESS) into its standalone community wind-diesel grid. Annually, the BESS is expected to eliminate more than 4,000 hours of diesel generator use, displace approximately 59,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and save the Village more than $270,000.

Project Description

Background

The Village of Chefornak is a federally recognized tribe and Yup’ik community located in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of coastal southwest Alaska. The area experiences extremely high energy costs and is heavily reliant upon subsistence to offset high rates of poverty.

The Naterkaq Light Plant is an islanded microgrid. NLP provides heat and electricity to all community residences and essential tribal facilities. In the event of power outages, food caches are put at risk and medical care is compromised. Furthermore, due to frequent extreme weather patterns, it is often impossible to fly in or out of Chefornak. This impacts diesel fuel delivery, as the Village is not connected to any road system and is only accessible by boat a few months each year.

Project Objectives

The project objectives are to purchase, install, integrate, and commission a BESS rated at approximately 500 kW and around 677 kWh into the Chefornak community wind-diesel system. All three wind turbines have been operating reliably for close to 2 years, and two of them have been operating since 2012.

This BESS project aims to provide a nonfuel means to support the load requirements for critical tribal facilities and all local residences for up to 3 hours during an emergency. In doing so, the Tribe will improve energy resilience and energy security while significantly leveraging its recent investment in three additional 100-kW wind turbines. It is estimated that NLP will experience cost savings of $238,500 per year, primarily due to the estimated annual displacement of 59,000 gallons of diesel fuel (equivalent to roughly 59% of 2019 fuel usage) as a result of more than 4,000 hours of wind-only, diesel-off system operation.

These goals align with the Tribe's long-term goal to reduce dependence on diesel fuel 50% by 2030 and sets the stage for additional investments in wind, solar, and other renewable sources in the future.

Project Scope

The BESS will be placed adjacent to wind turbines on tribal land in Chefornak and electrically tied in to the distribution system through an isolation transformer, electrical disconnects, and breakers. BESS dispatch control will be via a hybrid control system, which will be embedded in the switchgear cabinets in the NLP.

The BESS will be transported from the barge using locally available heavy equipment and labor and will be placed on a wooden deck adjacent to the wind turbines.

It is anticipated that the installation and commissioning of the BESS could take approximately 3 months to allow the system to operate and demonstrate performance under varying wind penetration levels. It is also anticipated that the installation and commissioning can be completed approximately 1 year from award and the mandatory verification completed approximately 24 months from award.

Technical issues regarding integration, project execution, and installation have been successfully addressed in other projects in the region. The method of integration and the system integrators have been identified. The selected BESS technology is widely commercially available and is specifically designed and packaged for grid support. The contractors are familiar with the system elements, including the power electronics, battery management systems, and communications and control integration.

The project will be managed by NLP through professional service agreements and specialty supply and installation subcontracts. NLP will supplement contract compliance and administrative capabilities as required.

The selected vendor will provide a senior project manager (SPM) to work directly with and be the single point of contact for NLP. The SPM will be supported by a staff of technicians, application engineers, subcontractors, and administrators. The project’s effectiveness will be dependent upon strong organizational, logistical, and communication skills, which have been honed and harnessed during similar projects in the region—and at NLP—by the same project installation team as will be used in Chefornak.

The SPM will work closely with NLP and the Village of Chefornak for all matters related to the scope, schedule, and commercial terms of the project. Together with the project team, NLP and the SPM will develop a final project implementation plan, which will be executed to comply with all requirements and expectations in accordance with Department of Energy (DOE) guidelines. The SPM will be responsible for meeting NLP’s technical objectives with respect to the project scope, budget, and schedule, as well as for assuring the technical implementation and coordination across the design, implementation, and construction phases.

The engineering team will provide the detailed design, implementation, and testing commissioning of the system. The project management team will work with the engineering team and subcontractors to develop and execute the project development plan, conduct commercial negotiations, and coordinate field activities to ensure compliance with the system requirements.

Project Location

The Village of Chefornak is a federally recognized tribe and a Yup’ik community located in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of southwest Alaska. The BESS will be installed adjacent to the wind turbines already sited on tribal property owned by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act village corporation Chefarnrmute, Inc.

Project Status

The project was competitively selected in Fiscal Year 2021 under the DOE Office of Indian Energy’s funding opportunity announcement “Energy Technology Deployment on Tribal Lands - 2020” (DE-FOA-0002317) and started in October 2021.

The project status reports provide more information.