Buffalo and Geneseo Issue Microgrid RFPs for NY Prize Feasibility Studies

July 19, 2015
New York towns and cities are continuing to issue microgrid RFPs for help with feasibility studies being funded through the first NY Prize awards

Buffalo, NY. Source: Wikimedia Commons

New York towns and cities are continuing to issue microgrid RFPs for help with feasibility studies being funded through the first NY Prize awards.

In all, 83 cities and towns were recently awarded $100,000 each for community microgrid feasibility studies in the first phase of the NY Prize, a $40 million contest to encourage community microgrids.

The city of Buffalo is seeking bids by Tuesday, August 4, 2015 for a contractor to assist with an engineering and feasibility study for a downtown microgrid.

Buffalo plans to expand existing district energy loops to include more buildings, among them government facilities, private mixed-use development, industry and residential apartments.

The city has a downtown steam heat system, now running at only about 33 percent of its capacity, which it intends to modernize. It also plans to add a combined heat and plant, possibly fueled by waste or biomass. The microgrid may provide cooling services and include renewable energy.

Buffalo will explore financing through a public/private partnership. To do so, it may revitalize the Buffalo District Energy Corp.

The contract term will run for eight months. Partners in the community microgrid project include the Buffalo Department of Public Works, Erie County, and the Buffalo Urban Development Corp.

More information is available at New York Bids or by contacting the Buffalo Department of Public Works, Jennifer Jacobs, jjacobs@city-buffalo. A copy of the microgrid RFP is available here.

Separately, bids are due July 24, 2015 in a microgrid RFP issued by Geneseo, part of the State University of New York (SUNY). The college is seeking a flex/tech consultant under a five-month contract to determine microgrid options for the Village of Geneseo.

SUNY Geneseo is a critical shelter area for emergencies.  The proposed microgrid would serve Geneseo’s wastewater treatment plant, fire station, police station, a regional urgent care facility, Livingston County’s government center and jail, SUNY Geneseo’s police station, health center, dormitories, and large gymnasium capable of housing displaced community members in the event of a crisis.

Project partners include SUNY Geneseo, the Village of Geneseo, Campus Auxiliary Services, and Rochester Gas and Electric

The Geneseo contact is Rebecca Anchor, Purchasing & Central  Service, 585-245-5100, [email protected]. More details are available at New York Bids.

As reported earlier on MicrogridKnowledge.com, Southampton, New York, issued a solicitation July 2 seeking a contractor to assist with its community microrid feasibility study.

Track microgrid RFPs by following us on twitter @MicrogridNews.

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

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