Pacific Power Offers Funds for Renewable Microgrids and Other Advanced Energy

July 20, 2017
Oregon-based utility Pacific Power is offering funds for community, clean energy projects, with emphasis on renewable microgrids, electric vehicle charging, energy storage systems and other new advanced energy.

Oregon-based utility Pacific Power is offering funds for clean energy projects, with emphasis on renewable microgrids, electric vehicle charging, energy storage systems and other advanced energy that serves communities.

Courtesy of Pacific Power

The funding comes from the utility’s Blue Sky program, which has provided $10 million for clean energy projects since 2006. Pacific Power selects projects annually through a competitive process. The program has added more than 8 MW of renewable capacity to the grid in Oregon, Washington and California.

Selected projects can receive funding for as much as 100 percent of their capital costs. The amount offered changes from year to year and varies by project. The utility determines how much each project receives based on several factors, among them the number and type of applications and the outcome of the evaluations.

Projects must be non-residential, locally owned, generate less than 10 MW, and located in Pacific Power’s service territory. They also must be completed by Dec. 31, 2018.

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Pacific Power prefers proposals that target underserved populations, contribute to community resiliency and emergency preparedness, educate and engage the public, and use local labor and materials. Proposals have an edge, too, if they are from customers or communities that already participate in Blue Sky.

Technologies proposed may support a range of renewable resources, among them wind, solar, low-emissions biomass, wave, landfill gas, certified low-impact hydro, pipeline or irrigation canal hydropower and geothermal.

The utility requires that projects use electronic monitoring systems to collect inverter energy production data for at least five years. The monitoring system must include a production history electronic database and a public web link to be added to Pacific Power’s website for educational purposes.

Applications are due September 29 and winners will be notified in February 2018.

Eligibility requirements, project qualifications and application forms are available at pacificpower.net/blueskyfunds. A list of  previously funded projects is available on Pacific Power’s website.

Read more about renewable microgrids on the Microgrid Knowledge infrastructure/renewables channel.

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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