Choosing electric buses powered by a microgrid was an easy decision for the Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA), which expects significant fuel savings, resilience and cleaner air from the project in the Los Angeles , Calif. area.

“This is a no brainer,” said Macy Neshati, executive director and CEO of AVTA, which provides local, commuter and dial-a-ride service to more than 450,000 residents in the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale. Residents in unincorporated portions of northern Los Angeles County are also served.

AVTA now operates 44 transit buses that are electrified, and plans to electrify another 30 commuter buses and add a microgrid that will provide 100% of the charging for buses. The microgrid will be housed at AVTA’s bus maintenance depot, he said. The buses will be charged when needed while they’re at sites located along routes, away from the depot, and those sites will have solar and batteries.

When the microgrid is complete, charging prices will drop significantly, he said. AVTA now pays Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) 13 cents/kWh for charging. That includes the utilities’ agreeing to wave “demand charges and onerous fees,” he said.

Under a new contract with Duke Energy, the price for charging buses at five sites that are located outside the main bus depot will be 9.5 cents/kWh. But when buses are being charged directly by the microgrid at the bus maintenance depot, prices could be as low as 4.5 cents/kWh, Neshati said.

No wheeling charges with microgrid
The extra 5 cents/kWh for the offsite charging stations is due to wheeling charges from the utilities, a fee to cover costs of moving power from a generation facility to the distribution lines. He noted that the wheeling charges don’t apply when buses are charged directly by the microgrid.

AVTA will also meet California’s low-carbon fuel standards, providing additional savings. “For electricity use for charging electric vehicles (EV), you get low carbon fuel standard credits,” he said.

The state’s low carbon fuel standards are designed to cut the carbon intensity of transportation fuels. The state developed the standards — which consider greenhouse gas emissions from extraction to combustion — to meet California’s climate bill. AVTA owns its credits, which can be sold.

The Maine House has approved a microgrid bill that would open the state to microgrid development and clarify utility and operator roles.

L.D. 13, passed by the House on a 85-54 vote in mid-March, directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to approve microgrid proposals of up to 25 MW if they are in the public interest.

The bill originally had a 10-MW cap on the size of potential microgrids, but Mt. Desert Island is considering setting up a microgrid and the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology decided to increase the cap to match the island’s needs, according to Rep. Seth Berry, one of the panel’s chairs.

Maine technically allows microgrids, but under current law it is easier to form a utility to provide microgrid services than to simply establish a microgrid, Berry said in an interview.

“It’s not possible to set up a true microgrid,” Berry said. “The minute you need poles and wires to deliver power between customers, then you’re acting as a utility.”

To deal with that issue, the bill declares that microgrid operators would not be deemed public utilities under Maine statute.

Criteria for regulatory review
The bill sets criteria the PUC must use when reviewing microgrids proposals, including that they meet Maine’s renewable portfolio standard requirements and that they are in the service territory of a utility with at least 50,000 customers.

Also, anyone proposing a microgrid must have the financial and technical capacity to build and operate one, according to the bill. The microgrid must be shown not to hurt grid reliability.

The Maine House has approved a microgrid bill that would open the state to microgrid development and clarify utility and operator roles.

L.D. 13, passed by the House on a 85-54 vote in mid-March, directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to approve microgrid proposals of up to 25 MW if they are in the public interest.

The bill originally had a 10-MW cap on the size of potential microgrids, but Mt. Desert Island is considering setting up a microgrid and the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology decided to increase the cap to match the island’s needs, according to Rep. Seth Berry, one of the panel’s chairs.

Maine technically allows microgrids, but under current law it is easier to form a utility to provide microgrid services than to simply establish a microgrid, Berry said in an interview.

“It’s not possible to set up a true microgrid,” Berry said. “The minute you need poles and wires to deliver power between customers, then you’re acting as a utility.”

To deal with that issue, the bill declares that microgrid operators would not be deemed public utilities under Maine statute.

Criteria for regulatory review
The bill sets criteria the PUC must use when reviewing microgrids proposals, including that they meet Maine’s renewable portfolio standard requirements and that they are in the service territory of a utility with at least 50,000 customers.

Also, anyone proposing a microgrid must have the financial and technical capacity to build and operate one, according to the bill. The microgrid must be shown not to hurt grid reliability.

There must also be a contractual relationship between the microgrid operator and consumers within the area to be served by the proposed microgrid.

In a key change, the bill was amended to remove language barring investor-owned utilities and their affiliates from owning and operating microgrids.

When reviewing proposed projects, the PUC may consider possible ratepayer effects, positive or negative, benefits from increased resilience or reliability of the electric grid, economic development benefits or “any other factors” the commission considers necessary to promote the public interest, according to the bill

In an era of bipartisan wrangling, it turns out microgrids are one thing US voters agree upon — at least once they understand them.

That’s the finding of a survey conducted for the Civil Society Institute, a Massachusetts think tank that works to uncover common ground on education, healthcare, water, energy and other issues.

Last year the institute decided to take a deep look at microgrids after its research into renewable energy indicated that microgrids hold strong universal appeal.

Their polling of 1,000 voters in October, and qualitative discussions with 400 voters, upheld the premise. Democrats, Independents and Republicans overwhelmingly liked the microgrid concept — once it was explained to them.

Initially, the majority of all voters (83%) said they had never heard of the concept (56%), or they had heard of it but had the wrong impression (27%).

What voters like about microgrids
But after they were given a definition*, the conversation became animated and the audience wanted to learn more, according to pollster Vince Breglio.

“I was amazed at how much people had to say about a concept they had not understood and only had a short paragraph of explanation about,” said Breglio, advisor to US presidents, senators and governors as well as such corporations as Sony, Toyota and Caterpillar.

So what did they like about microgrid technology?

That’s where ideology did come into play. Democrats tended to see microgrids as a climate solution, as did women, younger voters and Hispanics. Republicans, older voters, and those with higher incomes favored messaging related to protecting electric supply against hacking or terrorism.

The survey also uncovered strong support for community microgrids when they were described as part of grid modernization.