Abstract

Rapid urbanization of the world's population is creating great sociological, environmental, and structural strains on the cities where people are moving to. Housing is becoming scarce and expensive, while the need to build new housing is placing great burdens on existing infrastructure—especially local power grids. It will be shown that integrating urban development around a microgrid concept would greatly alleviate the problems associated with urbanization. Incorporation of a microgrid, based on a cogenerating power station where waste heat is used to provide climate control and hot water and where power production is supplemented with renewable energy sources, would effectively remove the development from the local grid and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, this model can accommodate any combination of large-scale residential, commercial, or industrial developments to revitalize the local neighborhood and can do so at a level of profit that would allow for lower rents, creating housing and job opportunities for those who are most in need.

Keywords: microgrid, urban development, cogeneration, trigeneration, renewable energy

### 1. Introduction

Urbanization has occurred throughout history as agricultural societies evolve [1, 2]. The concentration of population (Pop.) leads to a specialization of labor, allowing individuals to concentrate their efforts into fields where they have a particular aptitude. This inevitably leads to the rise of some type of market economy in which one trades upon the skills possessed to fulfill needs in areas outside of one's chosen field of endeavor. Urbanization historically has led to greater overall prosperity in the long term [3–6]. However, immediate consequences are more varied and lead to the "known evils" of city life: poverty, slums, an uneven distribution of resources, and a marked decline in public health [7].

The historical trend toward urbanization is continuing and accelerating into the present. The world population has grown dramatically in the past 75 years and has become increasingly urbanized. The total population of the planet grew by 148% between 1960 and 2017 and by 42% in the roughly quarter century between 1990 and 2017 [8]. During that same quarter century period, the urban population of the planet grew at almost double the rate of the overall population, increasing by 83%

between 1990 and 2017 [9]. In 1990, 43% of the world's population lived in urban centers compared to 54% of a larger population in 2017, an increase of 1.9 billion people occupying the world's cities [8, 9].

The link between urbanization and the decline of public health has been weakened by advances in basic sanitation and the developments in modern medicine. There is now no discernable difference in life expectancy and infant mortality between urban and rural areas in developed countries, and metrics now favor the urban population in many developing nations [4, 6, 10]. However, the unequal distribution of resources still persists in urban centers, especially with regard to inequalities in the cost and quality of housing. The modern age has added energy to the list of resources whose availability is uneven and prosperity related [11–13]. This chapter will present a model for alleviating these systemic inequalities through the incorporation of electric microgrids directly into the planning and construction of new urban developments.

The United States Department of Energy defines a microgrid as "A group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that act as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the grid to enable it to operate in both a grid-connected or island mode" [14]. A model is developed wherein a trigenerating, combined cycle electrical generating system is integrated into the design and construction of a combined residential (Res.) and commercial (Com.) development project. The term combined cycle indicates that steam produced as exhaust from a fossil fuel-powered turbine operates an additional steam turbine in order to increase efficiency. It is referred to as "trigenerating" because the waste heat from the combined cycle is then used to provide heat, hot water, and air conditioning (AC) to buildings on the microgrid, further increasing efficiency. The model also incorporates renewable energy sources, solar panels and wind turbines, in the building structures.

It will be shown that an integrated development is economically and environmentally sustainable and is also profitable. The integrated development will be modeled in several cities around the world which were selected in order to present a representative cross section of both environmental conditions and levels of national economic development. In developed countries, the implementation of the methodology presented will alleviate the strain on the now-aging electrical grids that accelerated urban development is causing. In less developed countries, its adoption will add to often inadequate supply. Local conditions of cost, revenue, and environment are incorporated into each model.

### 2. Cities selected

The following cities were selected for inclusion in this study: Cairo, Egypt; Lagos, Nigeria; Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; London, England; New York City (NYC), United States; and Mexico City, Mexico. These cities were chosen for the following reasons. They all are considered "megacities" as defined by the United Nations, with populations greater than 10 million [15]. As seen in Table 1, they have all had major population increase over the past 20 years [16]. Table 1 also shows their ranking by population globally (WPR) and with respect to their respective continents (CPR; North America, NA; South America, SA) [17, 18]. Additionally, Table 1 shows that they are located in varied Köppen-Geiger (K-G) climate zones, a fact that affects heating and air-conditioning loads and cycles [19]. The definition of the K-G climate zones is given in Table 2 [20].

presents the state of economic development in the nations in which these cities are located, as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) [21] as well as the percentage of the national population living in poverty (NP%) [22]. The percentage of any given city's population living in slums is not presented in a self-consistent manner. The United Nations defines a slum household as "a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following: Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions; sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room; easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price; access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people and security of tenure that prevents forced

City Continent Pop. Pop. Change WPR CPR K-G class Cairo Africa 9,900,000 18,800,000 89.9% 8 1 Bwh Lagos Africa 4,800,000 12,200,000 154.2% 21 2 Aw Shanghai Asia 8,600,000 23,500,000 173.3% 3 1 Cfa Mumbai Asia 12,400,000 19,300,000 55.7% 6 3 Aw London Europe 6,800,000 8,700,000 28.0% 38 3 Cfb Mexico City NA 15,600,000 21,300,000 36.5% 4 1 Cwb NYC NA 16,100,000 18,600,000 15.5% 9 2 Cfa Sao Paolo SA 14,800,000 20,900,000 41.2% 5 2 Cfa

Microgrids: Applications, Solutions, Case Studies, and Demonstrations

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83560

Main climates Precipitation Temperature

A Equatorial W Desert h Hot arid c Cool summer B Arid S Steppe k Cold arid d Extremely continental C Warm f Fully humid a Hot summer F Polar frost D Snow s Summer dry b Warm summer T Polar tundra

City Country HDI Index NP (%) LCS (%) Cairo Egypt 0.696 25% 10.6% Lagos Nigeria 0.532 46% 66% Shanghai China 0.752 4.6% N/A Mumbai India 0.640 22% 41.3% London United Kingdom 0.922 N/A 27% Mexico City Mexico 0.774 52.3% 40% New York City United States 0.924 N/A 20% Sao Paolo Brazil 0.759 8.9% 19%

Table 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

5

Population and climate of cities of interest.

E Polar w Winter dry

State of economic development for cities of interest.

Köppen-Geiger climate classification.

The cities vary greatly in their wealth and development. This impacts the reliability of the electrical supply and the availability of affordable housing. Table 3

#### Microgrids: Applications, Solutions, Case Studies, and Demonstrations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83560


#### Table 1.

between 1990 and 2017 [9]. In 1990, 43% of the world's population lived in urban centers compared to 54% of a larger population in 2017, an increase of 1.9 billion

The link between urbanization and the decline of public health has been weakened by advances in basic sanitation and the developments in modern medicine. There is now no discernable difference in life expectancy and infant mortality between urban and rural areas in developed countries, and metrics now favor the urban population in many developing nations [4, 6, 10]. However, the unequal distribution of resources still persists in urban centers, especially with regard to inequalities in the cost and quality of housing. The modern age has added energy to the list of resources whose availability is uneven and prosperity related [11–13]. This chapter will present a model for alleviating these systemic inequalities through the incorporation of electric microgrids directly into the planning and construction of

The United States Department of Energy defines a microgrid as "A group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that act as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the grid to enable it to operate in both a grid-connected or island mode" [14]. A model is developed wherein a trigenerating, combined cycle electrical generating system is integrated into the design and construction of a combined residential (Res.) and commercial (Com.) development project. The term combined cycle indicates that steam produced as exhaust from a fossil fuel-powered turbine operates an addi-

tional steam turbine in order to increase efficiency. It is referred to as

sources, solar panels and wind turbines, in the building structures.

ronment are incorporated into each model.

2. Cities selected

4

"trigenerating" because the waste heat from the combined cycle is then used to provide heat, hot water, and air conditioning (AC) to buildings on the microgrid, further increasing efficiency. The model also incorporates renewable energy

It will be shown that an integrated development is economically and environmentally sustainable and is also profitable. The integrated development will be modeled in several cities around the world which were selected in order to present a representative cross section of both environmental conditions and levels of national economic development. In developed countries, the implementation of the methodology presented will alleviate the strain on the now-aging electrical grids that accelerated urban development is causing. In less developed countries, its adoption will add to often inadequate supply. Local conditions of cost, revenue, and envi-

The following cities were selected for inclusion in this study: Cairo, Egypt; Lagos, Nigeria; Shanghai, China; Mumbai, India; London, England; New York City (NYC), United States; and Mexico City, Mexico. These cities were chosen for the following reasons. They all are considered "megacities" as defined by the United Nations, with populations greater than 10 million [15]. As seen in Table 1, they have all had major population increase over the past 20 years [16]. Table 1 also shows their ranking by population globally (WPR) and with respect to their respective continents (CPR; North America, NA; South America, SA) [17, 18]. Additionally, Table 1 shows that they are located in varied Köppen-Geiger (K-G) climate zones, a fact that affects heating and air-conditioning loads and cycles [19].

The cities vary greatly in their wealth and development. This impacts the reliability of the electrical supply and the availability of affordable housing. Table 3

The definition of the K-G climate zones is given in Table 2 [20].

people occupying the world's cities [8, 9].

Micro-Grids - Applications, Operation, Control and Protection

new urban developments.

Population and climate of cities of interest.


#### Table 2.

Köppen-Geiger climate classification.


#### Table 3.

State of economic development for cities of interest.

presents the state of economic development in the nations in which these cities are located, as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) [21] as well as the percentage of the national population living in poverty (NP%) [22]. The percentage of any given city's population living in slums is not presented in a self-consistent manner. The United Nations defines a slum household as "a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following: Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions; sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room; easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price; access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people and security of tenure that prevents forced evictions" [23]. The world organizations do not keep data on such a granular level, and national data might not report poverty in terms of locality. As the purpose of this study is to use sustainable development to improve living conditions, the state of local housing quality is of prime interest. Therefore, it was deemed appropriate to use non-internally consistent data for local slum conditions in Table 3 with data on the percentage of the population living in slum conditions for each city (LSC%) which was obtained from the following sources: Cairo [24], Lagos [25], Mumbai [26], London [27], Mexico City [28], New York City [29], and Sao Paolo [30]. There is no measure or recognition of slum conditions in Shanghai.

3. Microgrids

dominantly preferred course of action.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83560

of the benefits of a microgrid.

conditioning.

7

Growing metropolitan areas require greater local power generation capacity in order to meet growing local needs and to maintain balance in the national distribution grids. However, the fact that this energy is needed in already congested cities presents an economic problem. Reliable energy is necessary for sustained growth, but the real estate needed for additional power production facilities is also needed for further housing and commercial uses. The use of land for power production addresses a potentially catastrophic future problem, while development for residential and commercial use produces profits for developers and increased tax bases for the municipality. Barring direct government intervention, the latter is the pre-

Microgrids: Applications, Solutions, Case Studies, and Demonstrations

Both needs can be simultaneously addressed through integrated development. The following sections will outline how such a development might be structured as well as the economic and ecological return produced. Although the definition of a microgrid [14] seems straightforward, this definition relies largely on selfclassification and makes actual quantification difficult. The data available at mic rogridprojects.com, a trade-related site that is partially based upon self-reporting, illustrates the elasticity of the definition [45]. A majority of microgrids are located in remote, undeveloped areas or on distant islands, places where connecting to the distribution grid is economically unviable or even physically impossible, making local generation the only possible choice. A prime example of this is the fact that 816 MW of the total 844 MW generated in remote areas of Asia is generated by the Russia Far-East Microgrid Portfolio, a conglomeration of 82 generating station serving remote and isolated communities in Siberia which could, in fact, be considered a proper power distribution grid in its own right. Also, the municipal adoptions of microgrids in North America are illustrative of the inherent idiosyncrasies. Of 114.3 total MW generated in this sector, 104 are generated by the New Jersey Transit microgrid. The fact that the energy used to run this large commuter rail system is generated independent of the grid is energy and efficiency neutral, since the State of New Jersey could have just as easily compelled public utilities to add equal capacity for this necessary service. Additionally, with respect to the reported data, the United States military has committed, for strategic and ecological reasons, to make all domestic military bases energy self-sufficient [46]. Although the adoption of microgrid power consumption by military bases does alleviate the strain on the distribution grid at present, the relief is singular and finite and does not address the future strains which will occur due to increased population densification. In fact, only two reported microgrids in the data set addressed residential users in congested areas. Both are located in Kings County, New York, Brevoort Cogeneration Microgrid, and New York Affordable Housing Microgrid. Both are retrofits, with the structures not optimized to take advantage

It is posited that an integrated, holistic approach to real estate development using multiple technologies in buildings designed to maximize their use is not only socially responsible but also economically viable. Inclusion of the microgrid from the outset would allow buildings within the development to utilize the maximum amount of energy. Therefore, it is proposed that a future development be designed around a grid-connected microgrid capable of island-mode operation as follows:

1. Main power generation-combined cycle gas and steam plant: Gas and steam turbines would produce electricity at high efficiency for the development. The

waste heat would be used to produce building heat, hot water, and air

The data on electrical distribution and reliability shown in Table 4 correlates strongly with the economic prosperity of the country wherein that city is located, as well as the age of the supporting infrastructure. The National Access to Electricity for 2016 (NAE) [31] and the National Average Blackout Days per Month (BD/M) [32] are strong indicators of development. Both the National Quality of Electricity Supply [33] and the National Average Interruption Frequency Index [34] are reported using the Reliability of Supply and Transparency of Tariff Index, a scale which "encompasses quantitative data on the duration and frequency of power outages as well as qualitative information on how utilities and regulators handle power outages and how tariffs and tariff changes are communicated to customers" [35]. A score of 8 is the highest possible on this scale. The measurement of power transmission and distribution losses (PD/T) is presented as an indicator of the existing strain on the local distribution networks [36].

A comparison of Tables 3 and 4 shows a strong correlation between the National HDI Index and the quality of electricity distribution as measured by both the Quality of Electric Supply Index and the Average Interruption Frequency Index. The state of the electricity distribution grids servicing the cities cited in this work fit into three categories: insufficiently maintained and planned (Cairo [37] and Lagos [38]), extensive but aging (London [39], Mexico City [40], New York City [41], and Sao Paolo [42]), and relatively new and robust (Mumbai [43] and Shanghai [44]). The categorization broadly mirrors HDI in the nations in which the selected cities are located. China and India are rapidly modernizing from an underdeveloped base and can build or expand a modern, robust grid from scratch. The United States and United Kingdom, and, to a lesser extent, Mexico and Brazil, have long established industrial economies, meaning that increasing rate of urbanization is a straining and extensive, but aging, infrastructure. Egypt and Nigeria are underdeveloped countries relying on insufficient base infrastructure.


#### Table 4.

Quality of electrical supply at the national level.
