• About
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
India Halts Wheat Exports to Protect Food Security as Southeast Asia Faces Deadly Heat Wave May 16, 2022
195 ‘Carbon Bombs’ Show Fossils On Track to Shatter 1.5° Target May 12, 2022
More Fossil Fuel Burning Will Drive Super-Cyclones, Farmland Loss May 12, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Demand & Distribution Batteries / Storage

Microgrid Saves Four Lives During PG&E Power Shutoff

November 18, 2019
Reading time: 2 minutes

Microgrid Saves Four Lives During PG&E Power Shutoff

Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe/Twitter

1
SHARES
 

A microgrid in northwestern California provided life-saving emergency power when Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), desperate to manage wildfire threats, conducted its first planned Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) in October.

The Blue Lake Rancheria is receiving direct credit for saving four people whose lives depend on medical devices that require electricity to function, Microgrid Knowledge reports. The tribal system ultimately served 10% of the population of Humboldt Country, or about 10,000 people, during the three-day shutdown.

Part of a 76-acre reservation, Blue Lake Rancheria took a big step toward its 2030 target for zero net carbon dioxide emissions when it installed and began operating a 430-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array in 2017, along with a 500-kW, 2-kWh Tesla battery storage system complemented by two legacy diesel generators with a combined capacity of 1.8 megawatts.

“During normal times, the microgrid serves its intended role,” Microgrid Knowledge states, reducing the tribe’s GHG emissions by about 175 tons and its energy costs by about US$195,000 in its first year of operation.

But where the microgrid “really shone, and not just for the tribe” was during the PG&E preventive shutdown. In addition to literally saving four lives, the Rancheria offered access to people needing to charge cell phones or EVs, even powering a mobile office for Humboldt’s daily newspaper.

“And, knowing it would have the microgrid to rely on, the tribe was able to strategize in order to provide the reservation’s gas station with power from its backup diesel generators, as well as provide fuel for services outside the reservation such as the town of Blue Lakes’ municipal water system and to the Mad River Fish Hatchery so it could keep pumps running to keep fish hatchlings alive.”

The microgrid’s owners have ambitious plans to add “another 500 kW of solar power and a 634-kW, 1,014-kWh battery storage system” by March, hoping to use the expanded battery storage capacity “as a resource in the competitive wholesale power market run by the California Independent System Operator, and to eventually move away from using its diesel engines as a source of backup power,” Microgrid Knowledge notes.

Jana Ganion, director of sustainability and government affairs at Blue Lake Rancheria, pointed to the area’s many lumber mills, both functioning and not, which “could be good locations for microgrids that could provide regional resiliency.” Meanwhile, the California Public Utilities Commission has launched a formal investigation into how PG&E and two other Californian utilities “complied with regulations before, during, and after their de-energization (PSPS) events,” Utility Dive reports. Concerned for the well-being of vulnerable people, like the ones whose lives were saved by the Rancheria microgrid, CPUC President Marybel Batjer stressed that “these sustained PSPS events cannot be the new normal for California.”



in Batteries / Storage, Clean Electricity Grid, Climate & Society, Demand & Distribution, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, Environmental Justice, First Peoples, General Renewables, Jurisdictions, Renewable Energy, Solar, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Fossils Fret as McKenna Sends Mammoth LNG Project to Cabinet Review
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans

May 16, 2022
250
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT
Severe Storms & Flooding

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

May 16, 2022
66
Record 2016 Heat Almost Hits Paris’ Aspirational 1.5ºC Ceiling
Food Security

India Halts Wheat Exports to Protect Food Security as Southeast Asia Faces Deadly Heat Wave

May 16, 2022
67

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Fossils Fret as McKenna Sends Mammoth LNG Project to Cabinet Review

EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans

May 16, 2022
250
B.C. Plan Risks GHG Emissions from ‘Blue’ Hydrogen

Methane Emissions Far Exceed Reported Levels as Ontario Plans New Gas Plants

May 16, 2022
90
Fossil Industry Faces ‘Epochal Change’ in Saudi Aramco IPO

Trade Protection for Fossils Could Add Hundreds of Billions to Cost of Climate Action

May 16, 2022
86
New York Looks to Replace Six Gas Peaker Plants, Brings Environmental Justice Groups Into the Process

Ontario Power Emissions to Rise 400% After Ford Cancels Hundreds of Renewables Projects

May 14, 2022
322
Petrosaurus Rex vs. Reality: Teck Mine Defeated by Low Price of Oil

195 ‘Carbon Bombs’ Show Fossils On Track to Shatter 1.5° Target

May 12, 2022
446
VCIB Unveils First Dedicated Loan Program for Commercial Solar Projects

Distributed Energy Matches New Gas Capacity in the U.S., Lags in Canada

May 16, 2022
75

Recent Posts

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT

May 16, 2022
66
Record 2016 Heat Almost Hits Paris’ Aspirational 1.5ºC Ceiling

India Halts Wheat Exports to Protect Food Security as Southeast Asia Faces Deadly Heat Wave

May 16, 2022
67
Analysts Search for Details as UK Pledges 78% Carbon Cut by 2035

Ontario Pushes EV Charging, Leaves Out Vehicle Incentives in Run-Up to June Vote

May 16, 2022
72
Fossils ‘Stunned’, ‘Aghast’ After Biden Pauses New Oil and Gas Leases

U.S. Cancels Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, with Five-Year Drilling Plan in Doubt

May 16, 2022
53
4.3 Million Displaced, 1.5 Million Could Starve as Oil Fuels South Sudan Civil War

Cities Must Prepare for Waves of Climate Refugees: Panel

May 16, 2022
56
Canadian Solar Announces Probe into Forced Labour Allegations

Canadian Solar Announces Probe into Forced Labour Allegations

May 16, 2022
20
Next Post

‘Ridiculously Effective’ Transit Discount Boosts Low-Income Access

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?