Goldendale Community Preparedness Microgrid
Led by Klickitat Valley Health, Goldendale, WA
In September 2021, Goldendale participated in a Regional Economic Diversification Summit (REDS) for Central Klickitat County. Their involvement helped situate the county's economic history and clean energy, workforce, and resilience visions to catalyze strategic federal investments.
Central Klickitat County REDS Presentation
To serve the county’s population, Klickitat Valley Health (KVH) was established in 1949. While KVH remains a critical health infrastructure for the community, the hospital encounters a challenge common for many rural areas—the need to upgrade aging infrastructure, but financial burdens holding back progression.
For KVH, the heating, cooling, and electrical systems must be replaced and upgraded soon. Without improvement, there are concerns its energy infrastructure systems will fail and require the hospital to shut down some, if not all its operations.
According to a 2020 district report compiled by the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure and Integral Group, “the community deeply cares about KVH because it contributes more than ‘just’ health care—it provides physical, emotional and economic health to its community. KVH is an increasingly important rural anchor in the face of natural disasters and is one of the county’s largest employers. It is also critical to the overall economic health of Klickitat County because its presence helps keep existing businesses in the area and helps in recruiting new ones.”
Acknowledging the value of KVH, Klickitat County Commissioners provided funding to explore opportunities for KVH which would address the infrastructure needs and support the continual value to the hospital and the community. At that time, Representative Gina Mosbrucker recognized that the Goldendale School District (GSD) was experiencing similar energy infrastructure needs, especially at Goldendale High School. The 2020 district report noted, “Rep. Mosbrucker brokered a community conversation to bring KVH and GSD together to explore possible district-scale energy solutions, ones that would allow both entities to benefit from a new approach to energy infrastructure.”
Washington
Klickitat County
Goldendale, Washington is located at an elevation of 1,637 feet above sea level. The city experiences warm, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Outdoor temperature ranges from below 0°F to above 100°F.
Graphs from the 2022 Goldendale District System Feasibility Report created by PAE Consulting Engineers.
The central district plant will need to be designed to function and deliver space conditioning across the 100°F range of temperatures. Annual average precipitation is 15 inches of rain and 32 inches of snow. Ground temperature averages 50°F, allowing the use of geothermal exchange for heating and cooling needs throughout the year
Building Information
The schools and hospital are all located within less than ¼ square mile. The three school buildings are clustered around the school fields and bus barn. The hospital is two blocks away.
Background
In 2018, the Goldendale community held a value planning workshop. Led by the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure, the goal was to find creative solutions to the shared challenges while preserving capital, honoring Goldendale’s values, and leaning into local renewable energy resources.
The workshop discussion covered how KVH’s critical electrical and mechanical infrastructure investments exceed $10M but are necessary to support current operations and upcoming additions. The workshop also discussed how the Goldendale High School needs a significant and costly infrastructure investment to replace an aging boiler used for heating, costing approximately $10M.
The Center for Sustainable Infrastructure and Integral Group noted in their 2020 district report that for KVH and GSD infrastructure is the biggest capital investment and a significant operating expense. Additionally, mechanical and electrical infrastructure are traditionally developed and managed in siloes that commonly hinder more integrated opportunities. Capturing such opportunities requires new financing mechanisms—creating a financial challenge for Goldendale, as the city holds a high percentage of retired people that tend not to pass public bonds.
Through the workshop, the group concluded that the approach of a microgrid and district heating and cooling concept would be the best approach to address their challenges.
With KVH seeking a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation grant , they took the lead in pursuing the Goldendale Climate Resilience District, a microgrid project that will serve the hospital and school district's energy needs. Read more about how KVH secured the FEMA grant in the Technical Assistance section.
Six shared central plant options were explored with the analysis of utility and simulated hourly data. KVH determined it would be more efficient to split the district system into two—with the hospital on one district and the three schools on the other. This option was based on the optimal combination of cost, ownership concerns, resilience, and reductions in energy use and carbon emissions.
Local Energy Challenges
Common energy burdens that KVH and the Goldendale community experience include:
- Common hazards to the area, such as flooding, wildfires, droughts, severe weather, earthquakes, and landslide (noted in the 2020 Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan for Klickitat County, Washington )
- Local generation of energy
- Lower energy costs for public entities
Graphic from the 2022 Goldendale District System Feasibility Report created by PAE Consulting Engineers.
The utility data from April 2018 to February 2022 was obtained and used to understand the overall energy consumption for each building. It was observed that the highest energy consumption for all buildings occurs during the winter months, the majority of which runs on gas. During the summer, gas use drops while electricity use remains fairly constant. With 57 percent of the total energy consumed via natural gas, and the remaining 43 percent was electricity.
Graphs from the 2022 Goldendale District System Feasibility Report created by PAE Consulting Engineers.
All six of the plan options were evaluated for utility cost, energy use, carbon emissions, and compatibility with the proposed microgrid. All options investigated are projected to yield significant savings. With either of the recommended options, annual HVAC electricity has been projected to reduce by over half.
The Goldendale Climate Resilience District would assist buildings in reaching their target Energy Use Intensity per the Washington Clean Buildings Act . Additionally, the plans two options would also reduce HVAC related operational carbon emissions by over 80 percent, enabling Goldendale to contribute to state-wide and global goals to limit carbon emissions.
By tracking our energy usage and benchmarking our square footage, KVH obtained Energy Star Certification for Buildings and Plants in 2023: https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/certified_buildings_and_plants/b_5779325
Technical Assistance
KVH is participating in the Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) Initiative. Sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Energy Storage Program, the initiative is a collaborative program between Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Sandia National Laboratories. ES4SE is designed to empower urban, rural, and indigenous disadvantaged communities to consider energy storage technologies and applications as a viable path toward community prosperity, well-being, and resilience.
The overall goals of KVH’s ES4SE participation were to further the Goldendale Climate Resilience District, bring the project closer to construction, and obtain another level of credibility for the project planning process. Specifically, PNNL assisted by:
Assessing energy contractors for future Goldendale Climate Resilience District microgrid work
- PNNL attended interviews to help KVH assess which energy contractors would support the microgrid project long-term.
- Interview feedback aided KVH in measuring each firm’s technical fit for the microgrid design needs.
Supporting the Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) portion of KVH's FEMA grant application
- PNNL worked with KVH, PAE Consulting Engineers (PAE), Ameresco , and FEMA consultants to determine probabilities of hazard events and evaluate mitigation options.
- PNNL documented environment, climate zones, and KVH generator assumptions, then used that data along with the utility reliability and KVH power outage data to help complete the BCA.
- PNNL’s support allowed KVH to package their microgrid project for a FEMA Hazard Mitigation grant and a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant application.
Note: The flowchart depicts the operation modes of the climate resilience microgrid's healthcare district. The ability to continue operation during outage events is an eligible mitigation measure that reduces disaster losses and helps make KVH eligible for the FEMA Hazard Mitigation grant.
Reviewing a microgrid feasibility study from energy contractors
- PAE, Ameresco, and the Apollo Solution Group completed analyzing, designing, and selecting a microgrid components, a hydrogen fuel cell and storage tanks to support KVH and the school district.
- PNNL provided a review of the feasibility study, which included suggestions and comments.
- PNNL’s feedback helped clarify study results, which aided KVH and project partners in making an informed final selection for the microgrid technologies.
Providing hydrogen fuel cell interconnection support
- PNNL worked with PAE and KVH to outline the interconnection process and meet Klickitat Public Utility District requirements.
- The resources PNNL provided helped KVH better understand the interconnection process and led to a more efficient interconnection application submission.
Assembling an equity and workforce analysis
- This assessment estimated the impact that the energy storage components of the microgrid project might have on equity and workforce objectives from communities and beneficiaries' data provided by KVH and project partners.
- The Goldendale Climate Resilience District Microgrid is expected to strengthen the current infrastructure of the hospital by lowering operational and financial burdens of fuel, utility, and personnel costs; and reducing the vulnerability to service disruptions. In addition to improving the efficiency of regular healthcare services, it will make healthcare and critical services more resilient in the face of severe weather and climate events.
Identifying additional funding opportunities for the energy storage components of the Goldendale Climate Resilience District
- Read more about funding opportunities KVH is pursuing in the Outcomes and Next Steps section.
Note: For the analysis, the team is using a guide from the National Energy Screening Project. The flowchart depicts the components that go into the analysis. Learn more about the Distributional Equity Analysis Steps here .
Outcomes and Next Steps
The Goldendale community is pursuing several grant funding opportunities for the Goldendale Climate Resilience District.
Additional phasing steps include:
1) Await commissioning of the hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen storage tanks, and switchgear. Anticipated summer 2024.
2) Upgrading internal Central Utility Plant Systems to make all buildings “microgrid and ground source heat pump ready.” This phase 100% funded and construction will be complete by the end of 2024.
3) Microgrid development of a one-megawatt solar array with battery storage. FEMA BRIC grant as a sub recipient through the WA Emergency Management Division. The project is currently in the design phase. https://www.fema.gov/case-study/washington-goldendale-climate-resilience-microgrid
The local match funding of $1.53M for the Microgrid project comes from the Washington State Climate Commitment Act Decarbonization Grant. The CCA supports Washington’s climate action efforts by putting cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health. Information about the CCA is available at www.climate.wa.gov.
4) Select the ground source heat pumps for the school district and hospital for a 93 percent carbon reduction. Funding opportunities are currently being pursued.
5) Continue engaging community partners in Emergency Operational Planning for the Goldendale Climate Resilience District under a Multi Hazard approach. As we begin this important step we have renamed the microgrid from Climate Resilience District to Goldendale Community Preparedness District (Microgrid) in order to capture more of the value and use cases of the systems to our community.
6) EV Charging Infrastructure: KVH is pursuing funding to add EV Charing Stations to the solar carports of the microgrid.
In July 2023 we were invited to the U.S. Department of Energy's, Energy Storage Grand Challenge to present about ES4SE and our projects.
Energy Storage for Social Equity
Excavation for the new Chiller Building
Switch gear and generator from 1949
Still in use! 75 years later
Mystery Breakers...
Old 240V Delta Utility Service is replaced with a new 1000kW 208V transformer.
The old wires were in bad shape.
New Chiller Building.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell delivery.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell. 100kW.
Inside cooling tower.
A Successful Ribbon Cutting for the fuel cell took place on Oct 24, 2024. PNNL story
Rural Goldendale, Washington, is now home to a hydrogen fuel cell, which will provide power and energy storage to its local hospital, Klickitat Valley Health. Pictured on far left: KVH’s Director of Support Services Jonathan Lewis with other key KVH and Washington State leaders.
(Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
EV Charging Infrastructure: KVH is pursuing funding to add EV Charing Stations to the solar carports of the microgrid.
Solar canopy at Winona State University in Minnesota from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_canopy#/media/File:Solar_canopy.webp
