West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project – Papa Yaw Owusu-Obeng – 2021

Goals

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) is working with the City of Oakland and other partners to create a resilience hub in the West Oakland Community. The resilient hub will provide physical spaces for the community to better withstand climate disasters and create opportunities for social connection. Papa Yaw, an EDF Climate Corps Fellow, was enlisted to conduct research to estimate the potential energy needs at the resilient hub during extreme events (when the Hubs will serve as community shelters), and to design a microgrid to keep the hub functioning during a power outage.

Solutions

Within this scope, Papa Yaw conducted a building energy analysis for the Department of Energy’s OpenStudio application. Papa Yaw comprehensively modelled the energy demand required to serve both efficient lighting and plug loads, and optimal heating and cooling loads. He uniquely determined the load profile for the hub for various activity and occupancy levels, considering scenarios when the hub will be used as shelters and various requirements for drop-in services to enhance everyday community resilience.

Using the calculated load profile as input to a multi-objective microgrid model, Papa Yaw determined the least cost microgrid design to accommodate extended power outages. He found that incentives directed toward energy storage and net metering presented the best business case for resiliency hub microgrids.

Potential Impact

Papa Yaw’s microgrid design for the resilient hub is estimated to have a net present cost of $1,889,000 USD and a simple payback of 5.8 years. Additionally, the generation of 257,000 kWh annually from solar PV is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 159 tons/year. For residents of the West Oakland community disproportionately affected by climate change, the project is set to increase resilience to extreme weather and air pollution.