Specialty Markets
Community Microgrids
A pioneering new hybrid of local power generation – a microgrid – embedded or integrated within the larger public utility…. One such model is the Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid (RCAM) in Northern California….
RCAM is a true bell-weather…. Protecting critical infrastructure and emergency services in a communi8ty that is prone to severe weather and service interruption. The RCAM business model – involving local generation, the regional public utility (Pacific Gas & Electric), the Coast Guard and a regional airport.
Local Government Ownership
This project demonstrates local government ownership and operation of renewable energy generation resources with full interoperability and coordination with PG&E, the distribution system operator. During normal blue-sky operations, RCEA* controls RCAM to generate clean energy for the North Coast and participates in the CAISO wholesale energy markets, including the day-ahead, real-time, and ancillary services. In parallel, PG&E owns, operates, and maintains a microgrid distribution circuit and controls the microgrid intertie during “islanded” operation.
(Note: This arrangement solves a critical problem or limitation faced by many private stand-alone microgrids – which is the state-road utility easement issue. That is the exclusive right of utilities to run wires over state-designated public thorough-fares.)
*RCEA = Redwood Coast Energy Authority, a local consortium that oversees not only energy security, but regional resilience and emergency response preparedness.
Microgrid Operating Agreement
To support the parallel business requirements of RCEA and PG&E, the team developed a microgrid operating agreement (MOA) to establish understanding on topics such as interconnection, facility requirements, safety, commissioning, cybersecurity, operating procedures and protocols, and so on. This work led to PG&E’s Community Microgrid Enablement Program (CMEP) and the associated Community Microgrid Enablement Tariff (CMET).
Protection from Outages During Emergencies
Humboldt County is particularly prone to earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, and floods. When these natural disasters cause a broader grid outage, the clean-energy microgrid will provide indefinite renewable power for the 19 connected customers at the airport by disconnecting or “islanding” from the broader grid when needed and becoming an independent, PG&E-operated grid segment. This ensures that airport flight service and Coast Guard rescue operations—critical lifelines for the county—continue without interruption.
The information above has been – in part - excerpted from the RCEA/RCAM website, which you can access here to learn more:
https://redwoodenergy.org/about/community-impact/rcam/
RPW’s H2PWR Systems are uniquely well-configured to work within the “community microgrid” or embedded distributed generation utility-centric model.
Defense Communities
Energy-Related Supply Chain Vulnerabilities Military Installations and Defense Communities
Military installation mission-readiness priorities include optimizing critical infrastructure resiliency which includes ensuring power continuity and durability for their most-critical functions.
Assessments of criticality include prioritizing risk mitigation factors confronting facility and defense-community safety, warfighter readiness, and host-community interdependencies, both inside and outside the fence.
Supply chain stakeholders support mission readiness. The breadth of Supply-chain vulnerability includes regional and local critical infrastructure co-dependencies including service contractors, defense manufacturers and industrial capabilities.
According to a US Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation’s (OLDCC) 2024 publication, $473 Million was awarded to support military installations across the country also supports $1.7 Billion in federal funds granted with $623 million in non-federal contributions.
We collaborate with state, local and regional partners to improve military energy resiliency.
Using the H2PWR Systems locational benefits analyses tools, power-continuity vulnerability and risk mitigation assessments are used to improve resiliency especially for shared-critical energy infrastructure operations.
The “Safe Haven” Community Microgrid
Another microgrid model which has significant importance to RPW is what we are designating as a Safe Haven Microgrid™ model. The basic premise is that there are circumstances which require people to seek “safe haven” at a central location (during a weather or other emergency) – rather than sheltering in place.
In such a scenario, a facility within the subject community is to be designated to be the gathering place. This may be school or similar public facility. (In one such situation that RPW is familiar with, the location was in a town of 20,000+ people and the American Red Cross had designated as the sheltering location, yet there was no provision for electricity or other needed services to support/sustain a congregation of 3,000 people from outside the community.)
Planning for such a “public benefit” site required a several month process of engagement with the local community and stakeholders, including the host municipality, the School Board and emergency service personnel. It also involved town hall meetings, town financial committee meetings and consultations with the local distribution utility.
Considerations have to be made for many services in addition to the basic (and essential) microgrid, in order to ensure public health and safety. There will likely need to be relationships forged with the local emergency services providers (EMTs) and local hospitals/clinics. Food delivery and storage, as well as waste removal, has to be planned and provided for. Other ancillary services needed for the assurance of public safety must be arranged, such as refrigeration for medications and special dietary requirements.
This is all part of the planning for a “Safe Haven” public benefit microgrid. (Please see the section for “Locational Benefits.” See especially the portion entitled “PESTEL” analysis.)
Another issue that arises when planning such a facility is the maintenance of the microgrid equipment. For example, many professionals involved with town planning do not realize that a “behind-the-meter” microgrid – even a public purpose microgrid – is not within the local utility’s jurisdiction (except in exceptional circumstances when there is a “community microgrid” agreement with the local utility, such as the Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid in California.