Microgrid
ProjectsSubmit a project

Home / Directory / Philadelphia Navy Yard Microgrid

North America / Defense

Philadelphia Navy Yard Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations9
System facts20
Sources reviewed13
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The Philadelphia Navy Yard microgrid is PIDC's privately managed, unregulated campus distribution system on the redeveloped civilian Navy Yard—not a U.S. Navy base microgrid. The current public portfolio includes an 8 MW four-engine natural-gas peaking plant, a 6.4 MW/14.8 MWh Citizens Energy lithium-ion battery, roughly 400 kW of community solar (more than 1,200 panels producing about 930 MWh/year), and a tenant-owned 600 kW Bloom fuel-cell installation, alongside grid imports. Building 7R/GridSTAR is a distinct nested research microgrid and should not be silently added to every campus-wide total.

Research status
The campus grid is operating and currently advertised at 44 MW. Dominion Energy began a 10-year utility operations-and-maintenance contract in November 2021. The final 6.4 MW/14.8 MWh BESS was dedicated in August 2021 and participates in peak management and PJM frequency regulation. PIDC reported a US$31 million grid expansion/upgrade program in its 2024 annual review. Public sources do not provide a recent islanding test, outage-coverage duration, annual fuel/energy mix, or availability factor, so resilience capability should not be overstated as demonstrated indefinite island operation.
Historical classification
CHP
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
39.89346, -75.18445
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Philadelphia Navy Yard Microgrid?

9 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Alstom

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Ameresco

Developer/operator of the 8 MW natural-gas peaking plant. [8][9]

Organization

Burns Engineering

Program manager and owner's engineer for PIDC's battery installation. [7]

Organization

Citizens Energy Corporation

Owner and operator of the 6.4 MW/14.8 MWh battery system. [5][6]

Organization

Dominion Energy

Electric-utility operations and maintenance contractor under a 10-year agreement effective November 1, 2021. [4]

Organization

Penn State / GridSTAR Center

Research lead for the Building 7R CHP-enabled renewable microgrid-within-a-microgrid; not the operator of the whole campus grid. [11]

Organization

Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC)

Master developer, owner/manager of the private electric grid, and microgrid program sponsor. [2][4]

Organization

T&M Associates

Engineer of record for the four-generator peaking plant and its 13.2 kV connection to Substation 602. [9]

Organization

Urban Outfitters

Navy Yard tenant and owner/host of the separate 600 kW Bloom Energy fuel-cell installation. [10]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
1000 [1]
KW Gas/Diesel
9000 [1]
KW Fuel Cell
600 [1]
Storage
NA [1]
Campus grid rating
Current Navy Yard materials state 44 MW. A 2021 engineering page calls it 52 MW, likely reflecting a different configuration/rating date; both are preserved rather than presented as simultaneous generation capacity. [2][7]
Campus demand and service scale
In 2021 the grid served 105 accounts in about 120 facilities with a 33 MW peak and an expected future load near 50 MW. [4]
Battery
6.4 MW/14.8 MWh lithium-ion, about 2.31 hours at full output, comprising 2,240 batteries in three 53-foot containers. Earlier project material used 6.2 MW; 6.4 MW is the final dedicated rating. [5][6][10]
Natural-gas generation
8 MW total from four natural-gas reciprocating generator sets, connected at 13.2 kV to Substation 602 and used for peak management/PJM market participation. [8][9][10]
Solar
The original community-solar array is reported as 400 kW; the current Navy Yard page reports more than 1,200 panels and approximately 930,000 kWh/year. Occasional rounded '1 MW solar' program slides should not replace the specific array rating without a source documenting an expansion. [2][10]
Fuel cell
600 kW Bloom Energy fuel-cell installation owned/hosted by Urban Outfitters and net-metered through the private grid; fuel consumption and annual output are not public. [10]
Energy mix gap
The normal mix includes PECO/PJM imports, natural-gas peaking generation, solar, the tenant fuel cell, and battery charging/discharging. No current public source allocates annual MWh or emissions by source, and the BESS is not net generation. [2][8][5]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Battery energy storage

Model not publicly disclosed

6.4 MW/14.8 MWh lithium-ion system in three 53-foot containers with 2,240 battery units. Citizens Energy is owner/operator; public final sources do not establish a cell or PCS model. [5][6]

02

Natural-gas generator plant

Model not publicly disclosed

Four continuous-duty reciprocating engine-generator sets, 8 MW aggregate, on a 13.2 kV interconnection. Exact engine models were not found in public owner/EPC pages. [9][10]

03

Fuel cell

Bloom Energy — Energy Server (exact generation/model not disclosed)

600 kW tenant-owned installation at Urban Outfitters. [10]

04

Community solar

Model not publicly disclosed

Approximately 400 kW rooftop array under a power-purchase arrangement; more than 1,200 modules and approximately 930 MWh/year on the current site page. [2][10]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Battery services

    Peak shaving/demand management for the private grid and frequency-regulation participation in PJM; Citizens Energy owns and dispatches the asset under its project arrangement. [5][7]

  • Grid architecture

    PIDC operates an unregulated/private campus network rather than a conventional regulated utility franchise. The gas plant connects at 13.2 kV and the project evolved incrementally, which is why it has been described as an 'unintentional microgrid.' [2][9][10]

  • Research boundary

    Penn State's Building 7R/GridSTAR demonstrator is a CHP-enabled renewable submicrogrid inside the Navy Yard. GE/Alstom controller and micro-PMU projects were R&D/test activities; their goals should not be read as proof that every advertised control function is deployed across today's entire 44 MW network. [11][12][13]

  • Current investment

    PIDC's 2024 annual review reports a US$31 million expansion and upgrade of the energy grid to accommodate campus growth, confirming active infrastructure investment but not adding a new disclosed DER nameplate. [3]

  • Performance gap

    No recent public source reports a full-campus black-start/islanding test, critical-load MW, island duration, fuel inventory, battery round-trip efficiency, annual savings, or outage reliability indices. [2][4]

Provenance

13 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Sustainability & Resiliency at the Navy Yard

    Philadelphia Navy Yard / PIDC · Primary source

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Citizens Storage & Microgrids

    Citizens Energy Corporation · Primary source

  7. [7]
  8. [8]
    Philadelphia Navy Yard

    Ameresco · Primary source

  9. [9]
    Philadelphia Navy Yard Microgrid

    T&M Associates · Primary source

  10. [10]
  11. [11]
    CHP and Micro-Grid Technology

    Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection · Primary source

  12. [12]
    GE/Alstom Grid's Microgrid RD&D and Testing for PIDC and PWD

    U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information · Primary source

  13. [13]

Continue exploring

Related projects in North America