During this summer’s heatwave in the US, multi-tasking microgrids kept the lights on in a small California community surrounded by wildfire, supported the Texas grid during power emergencies, islanded to relieve stress on the California power system and helped an Oregon military facility meet its air conditioning needs when temperatures soared.
In California and Oregon, utilities implemented widespread Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events during which they shut off power in order to prevent their electrical equipment from sparking fires during hot and windy weather. In Oregon, Portland General Electric (PGE) implemented its second PSPS event to date — following a smaller PSPS last year in the Mount Hood area —and it affected more than 37,000 homes and businesses located in over 10 PSPS areas, said PGE.
Reduced use of diesel
Deploying clean energy microgrids not only aided the grid and kept the lights on but also helped reduce the use of polluting stand-alone diesel generators. During PSPS, utilities and customers have been using stand-alone diesel generators in areas experiencing outages, but utilities are trying to move away from fossil fuels. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the use of backup generators increased by 34% over the last three years in response to PSPS and outages, according to research from the consulting group M. Cubed. The backup generators equate to 15% of the state’s total electric capacity and […]
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