Microgrid Effort Continues in Puerto Rico as Army Corps Installs 8th Project

Feb. 6, 2018
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed its eighth microgrid on Puerto Rico, as the U.S. territory continues to struggle with power restoration from Hurricane Marie’s strike in September. Latest outage figures from the Department of Energy show nearly 30 percent of customers still without power.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed its eighth microgrid on Puerto Rico, as the U.S. territory continues to struggle with power restoration from Hurricane Marie’s strike in September.

Latest outage figures from the Department of Energy show nearly 30 percent of customers, 439,000 in total, still without power on the island. The grid and microgrids can now serve about 81 percent of peak power demand.

Power restoration figures from the US DOE, Jan. 31. 2018

The Army Corps is installing microgrids as a temporary measure “to safely and quickly restore power to the people,” said Cpt. George Wiley, TF power restoration plans and operations officer. Meanwhile, utilities and private companies are working on more permanent repairs and upgrades, including microgrids designed to address the island’s vulnerability to power outages from hurricanes.

Installed in Arecibo, the latest Army Corps microgrid went into testing February 1. The Army Corps will consider the project fully commissioned when the the most customers are reached within the limits of the equipment.

Army Corp microgrids also now provide power in Lares, Naguabo, Patillas, Villalba, Yabucoa, Maunuabo and Culebra. FEMA has approved funding for a ninth microgrid in Humacao.

The Army Corps expects the nine microgrids to power 20,000 households and infrastructure, up from a current 17,000 households and facilities powered by its microgrids.

In addition to the Army Corps., several private companies have been installing microgrids and battery storage, among them sonnen, Sunrun and Tesla. AEP has proposed a series of mini-grids for the island using 10,000 MW of solar and 2,500 MW of battery storage.

Meanwhile, New York and Puerto Rico together are urging Congress to approve more than $1 billion for microgrids as part of a $94.4 billion package they are proposing to rebuild the island. In preparation for a long-term, large scale microgrid effort on the island, the Puerto Rico Energy Commission has issued draft microgrid development rules that have attracted widespread industry interest.

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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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