A Maine-based non-profit group is hoping to build on ENMAX’s pending purchase of Emera Maine to create a microgrid on Mount Desert Island (MDI).
The group — A Climate to Thrive (ACTT) — intervened late in the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s review of the proposed deal.
The grassroots organization hoped that ENMAX would agree to support a microgrid project on Mount Desert island, which is connected to the mainland by a bridge.
“ACTT seeks to develop a ‘Freedom Lab’ to implement cutting-edge technology, modulate demand through storage and flexible loads, encourage beneficial electrification, explore transactive energy, and manage rapidly increasing distributed energy resources as MDI’s local generation achieves a greater and greater share of its electricity needs,” the group said in comments filed with the PUC.
The group recommended that Emera Maine’s sale be conditioned on ENMAX agreeing to put in place a “significantly-sized” microgrid as a demonstration project and financial and technical support for low-income households for energy efficiency retrofits and solar and renewable energy installations.
Island bracing for climate change
A microgrid could help address power outages that are becoming more common because of climate change, according to ACTT.
“Pro-active experimentation with microgrids that can ‘island’ under outage conditions and improve grid management at all times is now warranted,” the group told the PUC.
Because of its late intervention into the case, a settlement agreement was reached among key stakeholders that didn’t include ACTT’s requests, according to Ken Colburn, a board member of the group and a principal with the Regulatory Assistance Project.
Even so, the group has had discussions with ENMAX and the intervention in the case served as a “relationship building step,” Colburn said.
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