The word "unique" gets attached to so many energy projects, it hardly has meaning anymore. But a new microgrid now operating near Tampa, Florida, lives up to the billing because of the technology it uses, the customers it serves, and the cost recovery structure it employs.
Located in the Southshore Bay housing development in Hillsborough County, the project serves 37 homes, itself unusual given microgrids are typically installed for businesses, institutions or government services. While home or neighborhood microgrids are beginning to crop up, they remain rare.
Developed by Emera Technologies using what it calls BlockEnergy, the project makes each home into a nanogrid with its own solar, batteries and control technology. An inverter converts the microgrid''s direct current (DC) power to alternating current for use inside the home.
If the solar panels on the homes don''t generate enough power at any given time, the homes have a fallback system — a central energy park run on solar and natural gas that is located near the neighborhood''s entrance and connects to the homes'' network.
In this case, Emera Technologies partnered with Tampa Electric (TECO), a utility that serves 800,000 customers in west central Florida. TECO bought the BlockEnergy system from Emera Technologies and owns and operates the microgrid.
A microgrid can also provide help beyond its immediate footprint by acting as a refuge during a power outage — creating a place where people from throughout the utility service territory can seek shelter from severe heat or cold, charge phones, fuel vehicles and get food and supplies.
"Utilities are expert operators, which makes BlockEnergy a win-win for customers and utilities alike. Customers benefit from more renewable energy with a step change in reliability, but without the upfront costs or ongoing maintenance of making the investments themselves in rooftop solar battery storage or backup generation,” said Scott Balfour, Emera president and CEO, during the utility''s most recent earnings call.
“The technology [BlockEnergy] allows utilities to do what they do best, invest in rate base with economies of scale, and [optimise] the flow and sharing of energy sources to reduce the overall cost for all customers.”
Several home or neighborhood microgrids are in some stage of planning and may or may not come to be. But the Southshore Bay project is up and running — and has been for several weeks, according to Chris Hooper, chief operating officer at Emera Technologies.
Emera Technologies announced the project in October 2020 and has since taken a cautious approach to building out the microgrid, adding homes incrementally because it was TECO''s first venture into this kind of project.
The company energised homes as residents moved in. The homeowners pay for electricity at the same metered rate as they normally would, with no extra grid charges or other fees for the microgrid''s reliability and sustainability benefits.
Dave Pickles, vice president of electric delivery at Tampa Electric, described the Southshore Bay microgrid as a way to offer "a new layer of control, operability and flexibility. It''s one that can directly benefit our customers and help us to realise our net-zero vision."
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