Dive Brief:
- New Jersey is moving ahead with a plan to support community microgrids, and has developed a guide for applications that will compete for up to $200,000 per project in the first round.
- The state began developing the process after Superstorm Sandy knocked out power to many communities.
- As part of the process, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities worked with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to identify 24 potential town centers where microgrids could offer solutions. The locations are spread across nine counties hit hard by Sandy.
Dive Insight:
The BPU said it expects it will approve between five and 10 requests for feasibility funding, capped at $1 million, in the first round of its microgrid initiative. Applications must include approximate sizes of projects, building square footages and FEMA classifications.
Applicants that are not located in town centers will need to submit additional documentation. The "Town Center Distributed Energy Resource Microgrid Feasibility Study Incentive Program" guide can be found here.
Eligible projects "must have a nucleus of critical buildings and customers that can provide essential services and emergency energy services under black sky conditions in a cost effective manner, as well as operate in a cost effective manner 24-7 under 'blue sky' conditions," the BPU laid out.
The plan calls for at least one feasibility study in each of the PSE&G, JCPL, ACE, and RECO territories.
The Garden State got hit with 2.6 million outages during Sandy in 2014, according to Microgrid Knowledge, leading to a focus on microgrids in the state's subsequent energy plan. Regulators have yet to determine what the second-round budget will be.