North Hempstead Issues Microgrid RFP; May Add Community Choice Aggregation

Aug. 14, 2015
North Hempstead today issued a microgrid RFP seeking a contractor to assist with a feasibility study. The Long Island town adds to the list of New York towns and cities seeking contractors to help them develop microgrids.

North Hempstead today added its name to the list of New York towns and cities seeking contractors to help them develop microgrid feasibility studies.

The Long Island town is among 83 that won $100,000 in study money through the NY Prize, a contest being undertaken by the New York State Energy & Research Development Authority that will eventually distribute $40 million to build microgrids in the state. Several of the winning towns are now in search of contractors to undertake the studies.

With the $100,000 secured, North Hempstead has issued a microgrid RFP for the study.

The microgrid will be built in a one half-mile downtown radius that is served by natural gas. The town wants the microgrid to rely heavily on energy efficiency, renewables and on-site energy storage, and secondarily on clean burning fossil fuels.

The facility will serve critical facilities and shelters in the Port Washington area, among them, police stations, an animal shelter, two water stations, two schools, three fire stations, a library, and a senior housing complex and community center.

Town officials want the study to also look at possibly extending the microgrid to the neighboring businesses, which could be through community choice aggregation, energy service companies or other energy planning approaches.

What the microgrid RFP seeks

The microgrid RFP seeks a team that specializes in energy efficiency, renewables and storage, municipal energy planning, microgrid development and operation. The team must have previous experience developing energy projects in the Long Island utility and regulatory market, and be authorized to do business in the state of New York.

In scoring bids, the town will give 30 percent for complying with the microgrid RFP requirements, 30 percent for team experience and 30 percent for ability to render services in a timely fashion. The town reserves the right to consider other factors as well.

At a minimum the microgrid must:

  • Serve at least one, but preferably more, physically separated critical facilities located on one or more properties
  • Have a primary generation source that is not totally diesel-fueled generators
  • Offer a combination of generation resources that provides on-site power in both grid-connected and islanded mode
  • Be able to form an intentional island
  • Be able to automatically separate from grid on loss of utility source and restore to grid after normal power is restored
  • Comply with manufacturer’s requirements for scheduled maintenance intervals for all generation; plan on intermittent renewable resources that will be utilized toward overall generation capacity only if paired with proper generation or energy storage that will allow 24 hours per day and seven days per week utilization of the power produced by these resources
  • Have generation that is able to follow the load while maintaining the voltage and frequency when running parallel connected to grid. It also needs to follow system load and maintain system voltage within American National Standards Institute (ANSI) c84-1 standards when islanded
  • Include a means for two-way communication and control between the community microgrid owner/operator and the local distribution utility through automated, seamless integration. Include processes to secure control/communication systems from cyber-intrusions/disruptions and protect the privacy of sensitive data
  • Provide power to critical facilities and a diverse group of customers connected directly to the microgrid—diversity should apply to customer type (e.g. residential, small commercial, industrial, institutional, etc.) and overall demand and load profile
  • Include an uninterruptible fuel supply or minimum of one week of fuel supply onsite
  • Demonstrate that critical facilities and generation are resilient to the forces of nature that are typical to and pose the highest risk to the location/facilities in the community grid.
  • Provide black-start capability.
Deadlines and contacts

The winning contractor will work closely with the Town’s Office of Sustainability and its Planning and Environmental Protection Department.

Proposals are due 3 p.m. ET, Sept. 9, 2015. The town expects to award the contract September 29. The final written feasibility study would be due February 15, 2016

More information is available by contacting  [email protected]. The microgrid RFP is available here.

Track microgrid RFPs by following MicrogridKnowledge.com on twitter @MicrogridNews.

About the Author

Kevin Normandeau | Publisher

Kevin is a veteran of the publishing industry having worked for brands like PC World, AOL, Network World, Data Center Knowledge and other business to business sites. He focuses on industry trends in the energy efficiency industry.

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