IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2017 - 52

overall 1,200-acre property redevelopment. TNY is a former
naval shipyard that has been revitalized as a dynamic and progressive business campus and serves as one of Philadelphia's
most significant economic development projects. One of the
reasons for TNY's success is that the PIDC has adopted sustainability and progressive energy planning and implementation as the cornerstone for the entire development.
At the onset of the microgrid project, the PIDC and its
energy team established a set of guiding principles, which
can be a useful model for other microgrid developments:
✔ All investment decisions are being made based on
economic improvement of the business model.
✔ Focus is on developing a platform of foundational services that will be used to engage TNY businesses to
achieve increased scalability.
✔ Industry engagement and partnership collaboration
is essential. Examples of success include GE Grid's

figure 1. The current TNY. (Photo courtesy of the PIDC.)

figure 2. The future TNY. (Photo courtesy of the PIDC.)
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decision in June 2016 to establish its Microgrid Center
of Excellence at TNY.
✔ The PIDC and its energy team are collaborating with
Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) and PJM Interconnection (PJM) to pursue solutions that appeal
to both the utility industry and the microgrid owner.
✔ While microgrid choices are being made based on
economics, the PIDC is committed to continuing to
develop TNY's unregulated grid that serves academic,
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and industry-led
R&D customers.

The Ship Yard
The current TNY (shown in Figure 1) is a modern and dynamic
urban development, offering the Philadelphia region a centrally located waterfront business campus committed to smart
growth, energy innovation, and sustainability. Since the U.S.
Navy closed the historic Philadelphia Naval Shipyard complex during the 1990s, TNY has reemerged
as a magnet for new businesses,
employment, and investment in
Philadelphia. It currently houses
over 150 companies that employ
more than 12,500 workers.
The PIDC is the master developer in the future Navy Yard
(depicted in Figure 2), managing
all aspects of the property's development. The Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development
(PAID) is the authority through
which the PIDC manages TNY on
behalf of the City of Philadelphia.
PAID owns and has operating
responsibility for the electric distribution system serving TNY. This distribution system is one of the largest
unregulated nonmilitary grids
on the U.S. eastern seaboard. Peak
demand is 28 M W, and annual
usage is about 152 million kWh.
Not all of the 150 businesses in
TNY's footprint are electric customers. Rather, TNY electric utility serves 70 customer accounts
and bills these customers by way
of 188 revenue grade meters. The
customers range from a nationally recognized large shipbuilder;
the 14-building headquarters for a
global retailer; several U.S. Navy
manufacturing, engineering and
research facilities; a world-class
large-scale Leadership in Energy
july/august 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - July/August 2017