For about 8 hours on December 11, 2021, wind gusts of up to 70 MPH knocked out power for nearly 70,000 FirstEnergy customers in Northern Ohio. But not for the Village of Woodville. When the Village lost its power supply feed from FirstEnergy, electric department employees fired up their PowerSecure clean diesel generation microgrid system and restored power to the entire community of 2,200 residents.
Read More about Microgrid Keeps Power On In Ohio Village While 70,000 Neighbors Go Dark »
In 2018, American Municipal Power, Inc. (AMP) looked closely at industry changes impacting the joint action agency and its members. The forecasted increase of PJM’s capacity and transmission charges throughout the AMP footprint were of chief concern. PJM is the regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity throughout 13 midwestern and eastern states, including the majority of AMP members. To help members offset these cost increases, AMP developed a behind the meter peaking project. The first phase of the project is integrating PowerSecure generation systems into 14 member utilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, providing benefits to a total of 27 communities.
Read More about 27 Communities In Ohio And Pennsylvania Benefit From Distributed Generation »
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the busiest on record, with 31 depressions, 30 storms and 13 hurricanes. Fires in the West were devastating, with California suffering its worst year on record. The Midwest has also been inundated with ice storms throughout the year. The overlapping timing and geographic spread of these events, combined with unexpected operational disruptions caused by COVID-19, made 2020 a particularly challenging year to ensure power resiliency in the U.S. With 2,100 managed microgrid systems across the country, PowerSecure provided clean, reliable, and resilient power to commercial and industrial customers during 2020’s unanticipated grid outages.
Power outages are intolerable. Paying peak period energy prices is painful. Microgrids offer an attractive solution to both of these challenges. Today’s innovative microgrid electric systems deliver standby power generation to commercial/industrial accounts, entire neighborhoods, and even the utility itself. Choosing to deploy microgrids can give your utility customers the reliable, resilient, and cost-effective electric services they demand.
Read More about Microgrids 101: Give Your Customers And Community A Reliable Source of Power »
PowerSecure
, a Hometown Connections Partner, is a pioneer in developing distributed energy systems and in the integration of multiple energy resources for advanced microgrid deployments. Over its 19-year history, PowerSecure has managed over 2GW of installed microgrids.
Read More about Deploy Microgrids to Give Your Community the Benefits of Distributed Generation »
A polyethylene (plastic) fiber manufacturer, DSM Dyneema has expanded its production capability rapidly since starting operations in Greenville, North Carolina, in 2003. Dyneema runs production 24/7 for a variety of product lines, with a current annual peak demand of about 12 MW. The Greenville Utilities Commission (GUC) and its wholesale power supplier, the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency (NCEMPA), had been providing electric economic development credits for these plant expansions. As the majority of these credits began to expire a few years ago, GUC approached Dyneema to suggest the company install peak shaving generation to offset the expiring credits. Dyneema had heavily invested in plant expansions and did not have the capital or resources to finance a generator project. Read More about Peak Shaving Generation System Provides Major Savings To Greenville Utilities & Large Industrial Customer »
Pictured from left: borough secretary Tom Jones, American Municipal Power marketing manager Brandon Poddany, Councilman Tom Fisher, Mayor Joe Krause, council President Brett Custer, PowerSecure public utilities vice president Robert Tugwell and PowerSecure senior project manager Josh Burns
The official groundbreaking for Berlin Borough’s multi-million-dollar generation project with PowerSecure was held Oct. 4, 2016, near the Pennsylvania municipality’s substation. The diesel generators, which will be able to provide 3.75 megawatts of electricity for peak load shaving, should be operational by Dec. 1.
The Borough of Berlin serves approximately 1,150 electric customers. It buys wholesale power from American Municipal Power, of Ohio, and then distributes it to its customers. Read More about Pennsylvania’s Berlin Borough Breaks Ground on Distributed Generation Project »
Massachusetts-based public power utility Holyoke Gas & Electric (HG&E) is utilizing a PowerSecure Distributed Generation (DG) unit comprised of two natural gas engines to provide backup emergency power for the utility’s control center and to help manage peak load demand. The public power utility commissioned the distributed generation unit in late 2015 and the engines, which are placed in a sound-mitigating enclosure, each have a full nameplate rating of 200 kW. Read More about Holyoke Gas & Electric Turns to Distributed Generation for Backup Emergency Power & Peak Load Reduction »