As this year’s hurricane season bears down on Puerto Rico, people are bracing for more power outages, while holding out hope that new microgrids will be built to fortify the island and people’s access to electricity.
The Puerto Rico Energy Commission a few weeks ago adopted a final microgrid regulation to help drive development of the resilience technology.
The move was widely applauded by the renewable energy and next-generation power technology industries. Now, the question is how long will it take for investment to flow to Puerto Rico to build more microgrids.
“I’m seeing signs that investment might be available,” said PJ Wilson, president of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico. “People have come to me and said, ‘I have hundreds of millions of dollars of investment funds to build microgrids in Puerto Rico.’ Now that the microgrid rules are out, there’s literally nothing in the way of that happening.”
A microgrid is a local power grid with control capability that allows it to disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously.
Puerto Rico needs advanced microgrids to ensure that communities have electricity after a big storm, power technology experts say. Electricity systems that are decentralized and can operate independently of the central power grid can continue to provide backup power, even when the grid goes down, when switched to “island mode,” which means they are disconnected from the grid and operating in a self-contained manner. Solar panels backed with batteries are popular microgrid resources, but such systems can be powered by just about any generator.
“One of the most perplexing challenges facing this promising market is figuring out how to steer private investment towards projects that offer the greatest value,” Peter Asmus, research director at Navigant Research, said. “The ideal resource mix for regions challenged by hurricanes remains an open question. Nevertheless, I do believe this regulation is one of the most comprehensive approaches to microgrid development put forward and may serve as a model for other countries looking to scale up microgrids.”
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