When considering the future energy mix of Puerto Rico, worsening hurricane seasons and high levels of poverty in the territory are top of mind for energy experts.

Distributed generation is critical to boosting energy resilience on the island, participants noted yesterday at the Black Start 2019 conference in Puerto Rico, reflecting on lessons learned from Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Energy, policy and regulatory experts discussed a transition to cleaner, distributed generation as a cost-effective solution to harden the U.S. territory’s grid. Besides the high price tag of shipping fossil fuels to generate electricity, the island’s centralized system remains vulnerable to extreme weather events.

The San Juan-based conference came amid anticipation of a bipartisan bill that would mandate 100% renewable energy in Puerto Rico by 2050. The bill, PS 1121, has already passed the Puerto Rico House and Senate and a final version needs to be approved by the House in conference committee before being sent to the governor’s desk.

Legislative expectations
Puerto Rico Sens. Larry Seilhamer and Eduardo Bhatia, who both spoke at Black Start, introduced the bill in response to decisions to privatize the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).

“I firmly believe it’s going to pass,” Seilhamer told Black Start attendees.

The president of the Puerto Rico House, Carlos Johnny Méndez, told Seilhamer “he expects the bill to be approved by the House next Monday,” according to Seilhamer. The House left session March 18 without approving the unified version of the bipartisan bill.

Project developers are in search of microgrid financing; financiers are in search of investment-grade projects. Microgrid 2019 offers a platform to bring the two together in year two of the Microgrid Financing Connection.

Launched last year at Microgrid 2018 in Chicago, the popular match-making program is being continued for Microgrid 2019, which will be held in San Diego May 14-16.

If you’re a project developer, you can participate by completing the pre-screening application form. Your project will be reviewed by a committee of microgrid technology companies and project financiers. Applicants selected by the committee will be invited to meet privately with investors at Microgrid 2019.

“If you think you have a dynamite project, this is the forum for you. You’ll be paired up with experts from the financing industry who want to listen to you pitch your project. These are real people with real money. Experienced financiers who are specifically looking for projects worthy of investing their funds,” said David Chiesa, S&C Electric‘s senior director for global business development on the Microgrid Financing Connection. “If you’re struggling with financing, do not miss this opportunity. I don’t know when you’ll ever have a better chance to move your project forward.”

Pitch sessions with financiers
During a 30-minute pitch session, project developers will have an opportunity to describe their plans to the financiers and learn more about their investment requirements.

Microgrid Knowledge welcomes applications from institutions, commercial and industrial businesses, utilities, communities, real estate developers, government entities and others that are developing microgrids.

Ikea-funded research and design lab Space10 recently unveiled a prototype for a blockchain-based solar-powered microgrid. Envisioned as a self-sufficient community microgrid, the 1:50-scale miniature working model shows how energy flows in real time.

The Copenhagen-based lab focuses on creating better and more sustainable ways of living. Their new project, called SolarVille, is part of the lab’s larger vision for democratizing access to renewable energy, particularly solar power.

“SolarVille aims to showcase that, when combined, technologies such as solar panels, microgrids and blockchain open new opportunities for off-grid systems — allowing people to leapfrog traditional grid electricity,” the lab says.

Some households in SolarVille generate their own renewable energy through solar panels, while others automatically purchase excess electricity directly from the producer with blockchain technology, according to Space10.

Blockchain-Based Projects
Blockchain technology allows for electricity to be directly traded between energy producers and consumers, even though they might not be physically connected or even geographically close, Space10 points out in an in-depth report.

“Direct trading would create opportunities to raise revenues and reduce costs. A community-owned solar park, for example, could offer electricity in return for an initial investment. Or a hospital could buy electricity from the roof of a local factory,” the lab says. A white paper the nonprofit Energy Web Foundation published last year supports this argument.

Small LED lights embedded in Space10’s prototype show energy flowing through the neighborhood in real time. The village, designed by architectural firm SachsNottveit, showcases a functioning network.

Ikea has been involved in the solar energy sector for a while now. As PV Magazine’s Becky Beetz reported last year, the company introduced residential rooftop kits in 2014, added storage to its product lineup in 2017, and planned to develop energy communities.

Solar has been added to most store locations in the United States as well. Earlier this year, the retailer announced that a new store in Norfolk, Virginia, will have a 1.26-MW system with 3,654 panels.

The 4th Annual Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference takes place May 13 – 15, 2019 in Denver. Learn more here.

A little more than a year ago, California’s Ventura and Santa Barbara counties suffered from a month-long fire that destroyed 1,000 structures. And a month later, in January 2018, heavy rains drenched the hillsides and caused mudslides, all in the same general area. Twenty-three lives were lost, not to mention the loss of 100 homes.

Altogether, the so-called Goleta Load Pocket spans 70 miles along the coastline and encompasses the jurisdictions of Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito and Carpinteria. That area is now grid-dependent, meaning that if harsh conditions cause the power to go out, the whole region feels the impact. Indeed, Southern California Edison (SCE) has said that the area’s transmission system could fail because of fire, earthquake and heavy rains. So what is being done about it?

The Clean Coalition and the World Business Academy are working to create a series of community microgrids, driven by renewables, initially for the city of Montecito. The first stop for the Montecito Community Microgrid Initiative is the city’s fire department, which will still be linked to the main electric grid but will also have a microgrid that can isolate from the grid and generate power for the fire department and participating businesses.

The microgrid is expected to be completed by the end of the year. After the fire department, the development team plans to connect the city’s water department followed by an elementary school that serves as a shelter during high-impact events. The community microgrid will serve a quarter of the energy consumed in that target area — no matter the day and no matter the weather conditions. In the summer, it could be a great as 40 percent.

“You want to make sure you can keep your critical loads even during the worst weather day,” says Craig Lewis, executive director of the Clean Coalition that is trying to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid, in an interview. “The sites will be stand alone microgrids, with additional features that can tie into the existing distribution grid. But the first installations will operate in island mode at customer meters.”

Consumers Energy plans to combine solar and storage in a 4-square-block project in Jackson, Michigan.

Microgrid advocates hope a Michigan utility’s proposed “energy district” can help demonstrate the technology and spur more interest in similar projects.

Consumers Energy announced plans last month for a smart energy district on a 4-square-block area near the utility’s headquarters in Jackson. Though not formally a microgrid, the plan calls for developing a “smart energy community” around renewables, battery storage and electric vehicles, mirroring concepts of interconnected “smart cities.”

Michigan and the Midwest have lagged other regions when it comes to utility microgrids and battery storage, but cleantech boosters hope that’s starting to change.

“We’re kind of coming up to speed on renewable energy, microgrids and storage. I think the level of interest in microgrids is starting to expand in Michigan,” said Nathalie Osborn, director of smart grid initiatives at NextEnergy, a Detroit-based business accelerator.

Finding scalable solutions
Consumers has a companywide 40 percent renewable energy goal by 2040. The Jackson energy district aims to be powered with 40 percent renewables 15 to 20 years sooner.

Consumers issued a request for information for companies to be involved. Osborn said NextEnergy is interested in potentially helping with program management.

Go Electric’s new microgrid on wheels is a box that four people can lift and commission — and then move, if needed.

The mobile microgrid, now under development, also comes on a trailer.

And it can run in silent mode. Best of all, it can reduce the use of diesel and other fossil fuels significantly — by up to 80 percent while operating 24/7.

If it sounds like it’s perfect for military bases, that’s because it was designed for the US military.

Go Electric — which has secured about $8 million in military contracts to date — has been awarded an $887,535 Small Business Innovation Research Rapid Innovation Fund contract to develop a modular microgrid for the US Africa Command (Africom), said Lisa Laughner, president and CEO, Go Electric.

“Our standard solution is a turnkey microgrid. Most of what we’ve done has been at stationary buildings and bases. This is a turnkey microgrid on wheels,” she said.

This project is also Go Electric’s first foreign military contract. Africom is responsible for all U.S. Department of Defense operations on the African continent, its island nations and surrounding waters.

Microgrid advocates are urging New Hampshire voters to call their legislators in support of a microgrid bill scheduled for vote March 7.

HB 183 would establish a committee to study changes in law necessary to allow for microgrids in electrical supply.

Now before the New Hampshire General Court’s Committee on Science, Technology and Energy, the bill is scheduled for a House Floor vote on March 7.

The bill is sponsored by Peter Schmidt, a Democrat from Dover, and Howard Moffett, a Democrat from Canterbury. It was introduced on January 2.

The legislation is straightforward, simply calling for creation of a microgrid study committee, which would include four members of the House of Representatives, appointed by the speaker of the House, and one member of the Senate, appointed by the president of the Senate.

Hawaii bill puts microgrids in schools

Microgrids are also on the radar of lawmakers in Hawaii, where House Bill 1583 would create a pilot program to test renewable energy microgrids in schools. The pilot projects would be installed in four schools. In addition, the Public Utilities Commission would consider ways to incentivize the implementation of renewable energy systems in public schools.

Sponsored by five Democrats, the bill cites the devastation to Puerto Rico’s grid caused by Hurricane Maria and notes that public school structures can serve as designated shelters during disasters.

New Ameresco energy storage VP Jacqueline DeRosa highlights how the dropping price of energy storage has positioned communities to take advantage of new microgrid models. Community microgrids with energy storage serve to enhance grid reliability, security, and efficiency.

The growth of distributed resources is forcing utilities and grid operators to transition from standard operations to more decentralized power systems. Already, local and clean distributed resources can directly provide a local community’s energy needs. Distributed renewable energy paired with energy storage is not just technically feasible, but also cost-effective for many applications today. New predictive analytics can optimize the use of solar, advanced energy storage, energy efficiency, and other resources to allow communities to procure renewable, low-cost energy and maintain reliability.

While many microgrids to date have been built to serve a specific self-contained campus or large customer, community microgrids combine these new solutions to ensure resilient electric power service to a wide range of customers within a local community when the electricity from the bulk power system is unavailable during a disaster, such as a fire, flood, or a hurricane. These microgrids can also facilitate the integration of local clean energy among an interconnected load from a city, town or neighborhood during non-emergency times.

The main technology enabling the growth of community microgrids is lithium-ion batteries, whose costs have dropped by about 80 percent since 2010. According to the December 2018 BNEF Brief, the “volume-weighted average price of a lithium-ion battery pack is $176/kWh”. The same report stated that “the has price dropped 18 percent since 2017.” This trend is expected to continue with an even more significant decline in the next few years. One reason for this dramatic decrease in price is the growing electric vehicle sales that have prompted the development of giga-factories worldwide and have boosted the economies of scale for lithium-ion battery solutions, thus driving down prices for grid-connected batteries. According to Wood Mackenzie’s latest forecast, about 4 GW of energy storage projects are projected to come online in the United States by 2023.

ABB, a global technology company that specializes in power and automation, plans to boost energy storage and microgrid installations with a $113 million fund provided by Susi Partners, a clean energy infrastructure investment advisor.

Under an agreement between the two companies, ABB will provide its ABB Ability-based microgrid technology and battery energy storage systems. SUSI, a Swiss company, will finance the projects through its energy storage fund.

Either SUSI will own the assets or will partner with developers in the projects, said Markus Bruegmann, global product group manager for ABB’s Grid Edge Solutions, in an interview with Microgrid Knowledge.

ABB plans to focus on behind-the-meter and end-of-utility line applications in developed countries, including the U.S, Europe and Australia. The projects might include microgrids or storage that support mining operations, companies installing electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, and remote villages.

“SUSI already has renewable and solar funds, and sees a demand to support the battery storage microgrid application,”Bruegmann said. “Our goal is to develop new projects together.”

Financing renewable-rich microgrids
ABB believes a large number of developers and end customers are interested in using the funds. “We have just started discussion,” Bruegmann said.

In many cases, he said, microgrid customers lack financing, and this partnership aims to overcome that challenge.

“For example, take commercial and industrial customers, companies that want more renewable power. How do they finance the project and have a high penetration of renewables?” said Bruegmann. “This is the kind of challenge we are addressing. With our technology and the financing from SUSI, we will boost project implementation.”