UC San Diego to Receive $7 Million to Power Campus and Strengthen State Electricity Grid

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• Leslie Sepuka- [email protected]

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UC San Diego is powered by a world-class microgrid that provides clean and reliable electricity, heating and cooling to thousands of students, faculty and staff across its 1,200-acre campus. Thanks to the California Energy Commission, the UC San Diego microgrid will now also be home to the largest lithium-ion battery system on any university campus in the country, helping to power the campus and decarbonize its microgrid while simultaneously strengthening California's electricity reliability during times of need, such as the severe heat wave experienced in Southern California earlier this month.

During the Energy Commission's September 11 business meeting, UC San Diego was awarded $7.15 million in funds from the Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) Program to replace a decade-old battery with a new system rated at 10 MW/40 MWh, large enough to power 7,500 homes for four hours.

"At UC San Diego, our campus serves as a vibrant hub where visionary scientists and innovators converge to address the most pressing real-world challenges, including the ever-increasing impacts of climate change," said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. "By leveraging cutting-edge technologies to fuel our microgrid, we're not only powering our campus, but also driving the groundbreaking discoveries of tomorrow in our labs and engineering schools. This award from the California Energy Commission is a testament to our unwavering institutional dedication to understanding and protecting our planet for future generations."

For the past ten years UC San Diego has operated a 5 MWh lithium-ion battery system as part of its 55 MW campus microgrid. The Energy Commission's financial support will allow the university to replace and upgrade the existing system with new batteries and up-to-date design and engineering specifications that will result in improved safety for the next 10-20 years of operation. Scheduled to come online in the latter half of 2025, the new system represents an eight-fold increase in energy capacity and will play a critical role in modernizing UC San Diego's microgrid while providing reliable and cost-effective energy for the entire campus.

California leads all other states in the number of grid-connected batteries. The power capacity of these grid-connected battery systems is now the equivalent to five nuclear power plants. These battery systems play a key role in regulating the flow of electricity, balancing supply and demand and reducing peak energy costs, and provide critical power during times when the grid is pushed to its maximum capacity. They also allow for the integration of renewable energy sources like solar power by storing excess energy from midday and discharging that energy in the evening after the sun is no longer shining.

In 2026, the campus also plans to install a high-temperature thermal energy storage system manufactured by RedoxBlox Inc. with a thermal capacity of 10 MWh, also funded in part by the California Energy Commission.

"Battery systems are invaluable for addressing climate change and reliably replacing fossil fuels with sustainable, clean energy," said Mike Ferry, who led the California Energy Commission grant proposal effort and who serves as the Director of Energy Storage and Systems at the UC San Diego Center for Energy Research. "At the same time, the system will play a role in San Diego's regional decarbonization efforts by providing grid reliability as more and more renewable energy is brought online."

Learn more about research and education at UC San Diego in: Climate Change