Already on the map for its public service microgrids, Montgomery County is advancing into the next frontier of the technology — its nexus with transportation — with plans for a microgrid-ready depot to charge electric buses.
The Maryland county on Wednesday issued a solicitation seeking proposals for energy infrastructure to power electric buses at its Brookville Maintenance Facility in Silver Spring.
A neighbor to the nation’s capital, Montgomery County is Maryland’s most affluent and populated county. It’s also become a leader in microgrids, creating prototype contracts and development procedures for local governments to study and use.
Seeks public-private partnership
The county began exploring microgrids after a violent storm in 2012 knocked out power to 480,000 county residents for several days. Last year it activated two advanced microgrids at its Public Safety Headquarters and Correctional Facility. The microgrids were built in a public-private partnership with Duke Energy Renewables and Schneider Electric under an energy-as-a-service contract.
Now Montgomery County seeks to duplicate the approach. It’s in search of a partner to develop and help finance the smart depot using a minimum amount of county capital and leveraging tax credits, environmental credits and other incentives. The partner will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the smart energy facility.
Microgrid-ready and green
Like a growing number of jurisdictions, Montgomery County has set clean energy goals; it hopes to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. So it seeks clean — as well as resilient — resources to charge the electric buses.
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