Future gas-solar microgrid lifting Pittsburgh airport into energy independence

Source: Rod Walton · POWER ENGINEERING · | July 22, 2020

Photo courtesy PIA.

During a time of such disruption on both economic and health levels, it’s nice to hear of a project in which so many things aligned so quickly.

The project leaders might disagree with that term “quickly” but they can’t deny how timing has worked out.

Such is the case for the microgrid currently under construction for the Pittsburgh International Airport system. Work just began on the hybrid gas-fired and solar power generation system which will supply the busy airport and protect it from potential outages in the overall grid. The 23-MW project will feature five 4-MW Jenbacher natural gas engines and gensets joined by nearly 7,800 solar panels installed on eight acres of a former landfill.

“We can totally disconnect from the grid and operate this in island mode,” Tom Woodrow, vice president of engineering at the airport, said in an interview with Power Engineering. “The whole project is about public safety, redundancy and resiliency-that’s the number one goal here.”

Pittsburg International Airport is teaming with utility People’s Gas and gas producer CNX Energy, among others, to bring the three-year plant into reality. Construction on the gas-fired energy plant has already begun, while work on the 3-MW solar phase will commence this fall. Completion and commissioning is schedule for second quarter 2021.