By April Nowicki
The Town Board of Huntington, New York recently approved an agreement with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to conduct local property energy audits for the town’s nearly $22.9 million microgrid proposal.
Energy audits by the NYPA for the four public facilities will be paid for by the town at a cost of about $50,000. The privately owned local YMCA and hospital also requested property energy audits and indicated that they will reimburse the town for audit costs.
The microgrid proposal is part of a competition from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to provide funding for local electric grid improvements that will reduce costs, promote clean energy, and build reliability and resiliency into the electric grid.
If approved, the town’s proposed 7.7 MW islandable microgrid will employ several forms of distributed energy generation, including solar, energy storage, combined heat and power systems (CHP), fuel cells and diesel generators, according to reporting from Microgrid Knowledge.
Two utilities serve the town of Huntington: Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) for electricity and National Grid for natural gas. Both utilities acted as project partners in a feasibility study, undertaken with $100,000 the town won in Stage 1 of the NYSERDA competition. The total estimated cost of the town’s microgrid is expected to be $22,879,692, including investment tax credits, according to the feasibility study.
The agreement with the NYPA for property energy auditing is part of the town’s entry in the second stage of the competition. If approved and built, the microgrid would provide the town’s residents with resilient power and access to emergency services, community centers and a fully functioning hospital serving a population of 300,000 during emergency situations. Its power generation would create near-zero emissions between the fuel cell generation combined with the solar portion, according to the town’s feasibility study.
In 2012, Huntington residents lost power for 10 days following Hurricane Sandy. Last year, the town’s population was fewer than 205,000, according to estimated 2015 U.S. Census data. The town is less than 40 miles from New York City.
The project will act as a testbed for smart grid technologies, including individual real-time monitoring of the fuel cell, reciprocating engines, thermal offset technologies, PV and flywheel and battery storage, according to Microgrid Knowledge.
Originally published July 20 by Smart Grid News. Reprinted with permission. Original article.