When the switch is flipped on the Redwood Coast Airport Renewable Energy Microgrid, it will become the first multi-customer microgrid in Northern California and one of only a handful active in the US.
This inventive project aims to be a model for creating resilient communities, but should it be successful some of its more innovative features, as well as numerous roadblocks and archaic regulations, may make replicating this microgrid in the future unnecessarily difficult.
Traditional microgrids — typically a single building or contained campus — are becoming more commonplace. But the gradual rise of multi-customer microgrid projects further blurs the line of where electricity customers end and the utility begins, challenging traditional roles and regulatory responsibilities.
More than the sum
Implemented as a technology demonstration project, the ratepayer-funded microgrid in Humboldt County is part of California’s EPIC program to “accelerate the transformation of the electricity sector to meet the state’s energy and climate goals.”
The Redwood Coast renewable microgrid stretches over seven acres, connects multiple non-adjacent customers, and has both utility-side and behind-the-meter components, making it a unique endeavor even among microgrids. The anchor tenants are the regional airport and a US Coast Guard air station. A handful of surrounding commercial customers are also connected into the system.
The microgrid includes a solar farm with 2 MW of grid-tied capacity that can participate in competitive markets and 250 kW of net-metered capacity that will power the airport. Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) will own and operate the solar facility and maintain a 2 MW/8 MWh battery energy storage system and dynamic EV charging infrastructure that can participate in demand response programs.
The local utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), will own and operate the microgrid circuitry and equipment, and oversee operations of the microgrid in island mode when the regional grid is inoperable or the utility implements a public safety power shutoff. This is one of a few EPIC-funded microgrids by PG&E and the state’s other investor-owned utilities that will come online in the coming months.
Recent Comments