Blackouts: Why we need microgrids
Bundling solar panels, batteries provides backup
The blackout that struck San Francisco last Friday, knocking out power for 88,000 customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, may be an isolated event. Yet the incident should serve as a reminder of the effects blackouts impose. With extreme climate change, terrorism and earthquakes on the horizon, is there something San Francisco can do to make it through such events?
New cleaner energy technologies, such as solar panels and advanced batteries, can be bundled together with other energy sources into a “microgrid.” Microgrids are the answer to bolstering the resiliency of crucial public and private energy infrastructure.
What is a microgrid? It is what is sounds like: a small power grid. But when the larger utility grid goes down, a microgrid keeps running. Absent a microgrid, solar panels shut off like the rest of the grid, rendered useless when they could be providing the highest value.
The traditional solution to blackouts for utility customers has been diesel generators. But these energy sources are the most polluting of all. As Easterners will tell, many also failed during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. California’s clean-air and climate-change regulations limit diesel fuel burning. In contrast, microgrids can incorporate existing diesel generators, but also integrate batteries — which like solar panels keep dropping in price — to provide emergency power while also reducing pollution.
Since 2011, a parade of East Coast states, including New York, have launched funding programs for microgrids. According to Navigant Research, more than 100 microgrids are operating or in the works in California. State agencies such as the California Energy Commission are developing a road map to further commercialize microgrids, an emerging industry that has attracted large industrial giants such as GE, Siemens and ABB, as well as Silicon Valley startups and local battery storage innovators such as Sunverge and Advanced Microgrid Solutions.
Military bases, hospitals and communities see value in improving the resilience of regional power grids. Since 1980, the United States has sustained more than 144 weather disasters with damages reaching or exceeding $1 billion each. The total cost of these outages exceeds $1 trillion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
For the Bay Area, whose economy hinges on the likes of Google, Facebook and Apple, a single power outage could cost $1 million per company per outage.
And what would happen if an earthquake the magnitude of the one that hit San Francisco in 1906 struck again? A project developed by the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment asked that very question. While 96 percent of the city’s consumers could expect their electricity to be back online within one week, it could take six months for the natural gas infrastructure to be fully operational.
After a mapping exercise located potential critical facilities in San Francisco that could serve as emergency shelters during such a cataclysmic event, a dozen projects relying on solar and battery systems were identified. So far, funding for initial groundwork has come from a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The blackout last week should light a fire under this program, bringing these microgrids on line sooner rather than later (or too late).