In May of 2000, the University Research Park, adjacent to the UC Irvine campus, officially became a "Power Park." This designation, which comes from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), turns the park into a showcase facility, or "living laboratory" for the demonstration and evaluation of next-generation power and energy technologies.
The DOE defines Power Parks as "cost- competitive collections of optimized distributed energy resources (DER) joined by a mini-grid and often by a district energy loop and advanced telecommunications."
With the cooperation of the developer of the University Research Park (URP) - the Irvine Company (TIC), Southern California Gas (SCG) and Southern California Edison (SCE), this commercial real estate development has been prepared to accept and accommodate third-level beta testing of advanced power and energy technologies.
The proximity to the University of California, Irvine and the cooperation amongst the participants has led to the installation of infrastructure and the preparation of clients for the real-life testing of advanced power and energy technologies.
The energy technologies planned for the University Research Park include fuel cells, gas turbine engines, micro-turbine generators, photo-voltaic systems, advanced vehicle concepts, energy management systems, advanced information technology for monitoring and control, and others.
The intent is to address distributed generation integration issues in real time. Some of these include:
· Interconnection issues, agreements
· Architectural standards and collaboration
· Building Codes
· Natural Gas infrastructure and design
· Electricity integration and distribution
· Micro-grid capabilities
· Communications
· Information Technology development, monitoring
· Market Perceptions
Today, the infrastructure has been installed such that each building
can utilize 500 kW of distributed generation, such as fuel cells.
The site is deemed "distributed generation ready."
In 2000, the first energy efficient and environmentally sensitive
technology introduced in the living laboratory was the Toyota
e.com vehicle - a city battery electric vehicle (CEV), a part
of the NFCRC's ZEV•NET
Initiative.