PG&E Strengthening Community Resilience with Comprehensive Microgrid Solutions
June 11 2020 - 5:09PM
Business Wire
Today, the California Public Utilities Commission approved
Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) comprehensive and
cost-effective microgrid proposals, which are designed to reduce
the number of customers affected by Public Safety Power Shutoff
(PSPS) events and mitigate the impacts to those who remain
affected. A PSPS may be used when severe weather threatens a
portion of the electric system and PG&E determines it’s
necessary to turn off electricity to reduce the risk of
catastrophic wildfire.
With the increased wildfire threat in California, PG&E is
enhancing and expanding its efforts to reduce wildfire risks and
keep its customers and communities safe. High temperatures, extreme
dryness and record-high winds create conditions where any spark at
the wrong time and place could lead to a major wildfire.
PG&E’s Community Wildfire Safety Program includes short-,
medium- and long-term plans to make its electric system safer.
These plans include installing new grid technology, hardening the
electric system, and performing enhanced vegetation management, all
with the goal of making PSPS events smaller in size, shorter in
length, and smarter for customers. Microgrids are one tool in these
efforts.
“As PG&E continues our enhanced and expanded efforts to
reduce wildfire risks, we are also working to reduce the scope,
duration and impact of future PSPS events. A key piece of this
strategy is developing and deploying microgrids,” said Andy Vesey,
Utility CEO and President.
Temporary Generation Microgrid Solutions
For 2020, PG&E’s microgrid solutions focus primarily on
building grid resilience and keeping the power on for customers in
communities that have a high likelihood of experiencing a future
PSPS event. To that end, PG&E has reserved more than 450
megawatts of temporary mobile generation to be deployed in four
ways detailed below, each with a unique objective:
- Substation microgrids:
PG&E will use temporary generation at safe-to-energize
substations to support safe-to-energize customers and communities
affected by transmission line outages during PSPS events. PG&E
is preparing 63 substations to be ready to connect temporary
generators as need arises during PSPS events, subject to
operational logistics and generator availability. In addition to
temporary generation, in certain instances, PG&E will leverage
existing local, permanent generation sources to power
safe-to-energize substations and customers during PSPS events,
including PG&E’s Humboldt Bay Generating Station and a
third-party owned natural gas plant in Red Bluff, California.
- Temporary microgrids:
PG&E will serve designated areas like “main street” corridors
by rapidly isolating them from the wider grid and re-energizing
them using temporary generation during an outage. These temporary
microgrids will be used in selected communities where PG&E can
safely provide electricity to centrally located resources such as
medical facilities and pharmacies, police and fire stations, gas
stations, and banks. Construction is underway at four temporary
microgrid generation sites, and PG&E anticipates having 10
sites ready to energize by the end of 2020.
- Backup power support:
PG&E will deploy temporary generation on an as-needed basis to
critical customers for whom the failure of existing backup power
would directly or indirectly affect public safety. Deployment would
be dependent on generator availability and subject to operational
considerations. Additionally, PG&E has worked closely with the
California Hospital Association and Hospital Council of Northern
and Central California to identify hospitals supporting the
COVID-19 response effort that have a higher likelihood of
experiencing a PSPS event. PG&E is developing grid-based
solutions where possible and supporting hospital readiness and
resiliency planning, to ensure that those hospitals remain
energized in a PSPS event.
- Community Resource Centers:
PG&E will provide Community Resource Centers to support
customers and communities affected by PSPS events. Some of these
facilities may need temporary generation in order to give customers
a climate-controlled location where they can charge devices and
receive refreshments. PG&E remains flexible with CRC deployment
plans to adjust to the COVID-19 restrictions and best
practices.
Community Microgrid Enablement Program
Today, the CPUC also approved PG&E’s new Community Microgrid
Enablement Program in which PG&E will partner with local
communities to identify and build multi-customer microgrids serving
local critical facilities and/or customers with disabilities or
functional needs that are not already served by other microgrid
solutions offered by PG&E.
The program will help communities design microgrids by providing
enhanced technical support, improved access to relevant utility
information, financial support for qualifying projects, and tariffs
to support the accounting for the flows of services, energy, and
costs among the parties. PG&E will refine the eligibility
criteria and other program requirements through consultation with
local governments and communities, with a goal of full program
implementation and projects in development by November.
PG&E intends to model future community microgrid projects on
the Redwood Coast Airport Renewable Energy Microgrid project, a
collaboration between PG&E, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority,
Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University,
Humboldt County, and Tesla, Inc., among others. This
front-of-the-meter, multi-customer microgrid project featuring PV
solar paired with battery energy storage is on schedule for
commissioning and full operation in December 2020.
The Redwood Coast microgrid will provide renewable energy for 18
customer accounts, including the Arcata-Eureka Airport and the U.S.
Coast Guard Air Station, and serve as a lifeline for Humboldt
County in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. The
microgrid will be capable of disconnecting from the broader grid
(island mode) and operating as an independent, PG&E-operated
grid segment during a power outage.
“We’ve engaged with a variety of stakeholders on these important
efforts, and we look forward to continuing to coordinate and
collaborate with interested customers, communities, local agencies,
and governments to implement microgrid solutions that build
resilience and meet specific community needs,” Vesey said. “While
PG&E’s temporary generation program is currently focused on
2020, our work to make the grid safer and more resilient will
continue well into the future. Partnering with our communities on
customized microgrid solutions for the long term will be critically
important.”
Learn more about PG&E’s wildfire safety and PSPS mitigation
efforts by visiting pge.com/wildfiresafety.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric energy companies in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 23,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.
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