Electric Co-op Solar Assists Low-Income Members

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Empire Electric Association in Cortez, the Colorado Energy Office and GRID Alternatives have broken ground for a community solar array that will lower the electric bills of qualified low-income residents in Empire’s southwestern Colorado service territory.

The project is part of a statewide initiative designed to demonstrate how the community solar model can be optimized to reduce energy costs for utilities’ highest need customers: those who spend more than 4 percent of their income on utility bills.

“This groundbreaking in Cortez marks the first of many that will follow in the months ahead. Through these partnerships we are simultaneously achieving two objectives: mitigating energy burden for the most financially strapped households and assisting electric utilities to achieve renewable energy goals,” said Colorado Energy Office Director Jeff Ackermann.

GRID received a $1.2 million CEO grant in August 2015 to partner with utilities to implement low-income community solar. Earlier this year, CEO and GRID announced project partners, each of which is piloting a slight variation on the low-income community solar model to address the unique needs of rural utility service areas and that co-op’s customers. The projects selected are both affordable and scalable for utility partners and offer great potential to expand across the state.

“Empire Electric will be the first demonstration project to come online, but GRID and other utility partners are already seeing a swell of incoming inquiries from the community and families who want to participate in the program,” said GRID Executive Director Chuck Watkins. “We’re already realizing a reputation of impact, integrity and effectiveness — partners, communities and people across Colorado are paying attention.”

Empire General Manager Josh Dellinger said Empire is interested in expanding renewable energy access. “As a member-owned cooperative, Empire is concerned about the best interests of our members. We see this low-income community solar project as an opportunity to positively impact the communities we serve,” he said. “Empire is providing a hand-up rather than a hand-out to the subscribers — everyone benefiting will contribute through sweat equity and contribute financially to the project through a monthly energy payment.”

On April 15 and 16 in Cortez, GRID’s programmatic barn-raising model brought members of the community together to install the 21 kilowatt solar array. Participants included employees from the utility, the subscribers benefiting, local elected officials, schools and others.

GRID also included students from Navajo Technical University, a tribal school in New Mexico that offers an Energy Systems Associates Degree and courses on photovoltaic system design and installation. The students participated in the build and had an opportunity to work and learn on an actual solar project.

Together, the volunteers and their leaders installed 70 solar panels that will help save up to 10 qualified families approximately $500 per year.

Community Storage Initiative: Electric Co-ops Lead Research on Power Storage

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The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and other energy and environmental stakeholders are uniting around “community storage” as they search for a way to solve the electric industry’s energy storage challenge.

Community storage refers to a spectrum of utility-sponsored programs that aggregate electric storage resources available throughout the community, such as water heaters and electric vehicles, to improve the efficiency of electric energy services for consumers. Community storage programs offer the industry practical steps to rapidly increase the amount of energy storage available, and also integrate more renewable resources.

Initiative members are already implementing community storage programs; through the Initiative, they will be working together to evolve those programs.

Like community solar, community storage enables consumers and utilities to share the system-wide benefits of energy storage – environmental benefits, lower costs and grid optimization – in communities large and small across the country. Such programs maximize the value of distributed energy resources, many of which are already available to participate in energy storage programs through simple retrofits and program design.

NRECA, the national service organization for the Colorado Rural Electric Association and the nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives, is a charter sponsor for The Community Storage Initiative.

Additional charter sponsors include American Public Power Association, Edison Electric Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council and Peak Load Management Alliance. The Initiative will be chaired by Gary Connett, director of member services at Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative based in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

The Initiative’s supporters include a wide array of energy, environmental and business interests including several trade associations, environmental and efficiency advocacy groups and manufacturers.

Research conducted by The Brattle Group and sponsored by the Initiative’s founding members recognized that the nation’s 50 million residential electric water heaters collectively represent a significant and vastly underutilized energy storage resource capable of leveraging substantial environmental and cost benefits. A recent article in Public Utility Fortnightly introduced the community storage concept. Links to both the report and the article can be found on the Community Storage Initiative’s website, http://www.communitystorageinitiative.com.

Colorado Co-ops Researching Battery Storage Technology

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By Amy Higgins

Electric cooperatives are faced with the challenge of meeting the energy needs of their member-owners while meeting legislators’ expectations of increased renewable energy options. But “going 100 percent renewable” — a common statement in recent years — is an unrealistic undertaking without the appropriate tools.

One possible solution to these expectations is a new generation of large batteries that could capture energy when it’s plentiful and release that energy later when demand is high. Batteries are a hot topic for meeting those new demands, and some experts predict that utility-scale use of batteries could grow by eight times in the next three years.

ZEROING IN ON BATTERY STORAGE

This sonnenBatterie Eco Compact 10 kilowatt-hour system is currently in Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association’s community room.

Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association in Fort Collins is presently exploring the benefits of battery storage with a sonnenBatterie Eco Compact 10 kilowatt-hour system in its community room. The battery charges during the day from the solar array located right outside the co-op’s doors.

“Using control software, we discharge that energy for use in our building,” says PVREA’s vice president of member relations, David White. “This energy is particularly beneficial to discharge at a peak time in the day — when the cost of energy is the highest.”

This battery system was made possible with a Regional Center Grant PVREA received from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to research technology that is groundbreaking. According to White, this technology could potentially offer new, beneficial products and services for co-op member-owners.

“Utilizing the battery in our co-op headquarters has enabled us to start learning how battery storage technology helps us manage our energy use, thus how similar battery technology could help PVREA members manage their energy use,” White explains. “It’s another way we’re striving to be our members’ trusted energy advisor by understanding, embracing and exploring technology that is changing our industry and how members receive service from us.”

PVREA is just starting its research on battery storage technology. This energy storage technology is still in its infancy and there is more to learn and develop.

“The method for how battery technology integrates into the already existing local grid with the local distribution utility, and with the generation and transmission utility as well, is still being researched and determined,” White adds.

THINKING BIGGER BATTERIES
Another Colorado electric co-op, United Power in Brighton, is also starting to research battery storage. It is looking at a largescale battery storage system that would store excess solar energy generated during the day to be released at night. This could help solar and wind energy continue to gain ground in the renewable sector with energy generated when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing that could be utilized later when it is needed.

According to United Power’s new business director, Jerry Marizza, plans are in the works to have SoCore Energy install a Tesla lithium ion battery storage system to help offset United Power’s capacity charges with its wholesale power provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission. The capacity component of a wholesale power bill recognizes peak usage over a period of time, which can increase the bill.

“That’s what gives [United Power] the revenue stream to offset the cost of the battery. That’s our primary purpose for putting this battery in — it’s really to lower our wholesale power bill,” Marizza says. “Secondarily, we feel that operating and getting experience with this technology is critical in the future.”

This energy storage image represents what United Power’s battery storage project may look like.

This battery storage system could be significant for a specific group of members: commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. There are 2,500 small solar systems in United Power’s territory; 10 of those systems are used by C&I customers. These customers are billed on a demand and energy rate, but their peak demand is mostly when the sun isn’t shining or it’s a cloudy day.

“Even though you have a system at your commercial site or you’re participating in a community solar model, you cannot offset any portion of the demand component on your commercial and industrial bill,” Marizza explains. “That can be as high as 50 percent of your entire bill. It becomes a part of your bill the solar is not affecting at all. That’s been a problem.”

Which is why many C&I members don’t participate in solar. With these members in mind, United Power is beginning to explore options. Using the community solar concept that offsets energy, United Power representatives are thinking about layering a program on top of the battery to create a “community battery” that C&I customers can buy into.

“Instead of offsetting the energy portion of their rate like solar, it offsets the demand and capacity component of their utility rate, which, up until now, nobody has been able to touch,” Marizza says. “That could have a very big benefit for our C&I customers.”

Because residential customers are on a flat energy rate, they don’t need to participate in the community battery because they don’t have a demand component on their bill to offset like C&I customers.

Just like community solar, a community battery program would be owned, operated and managed by United Power. C & I customers would be invited to participate and buy into the program, and then United Power would provide credit on the capacity component of their utility bills.

With the push from legislators for utilities to move toward 100 percent renewable energy, United Power is investigating how — or if — it can realistically reach that goal. “Batteries are one of the technologies that are going to need to develop further to even come close to trying to get some of those goals,” Marizza says. “From an operational point of view, that can’t happen today. We need to develop some of these other technologies and get experience operating them to be able to even come close.

“We feel, on a secondary level, that getting experience with battery storage and how it actually operates is very important,” Marizza continues. “We feel that ultimately that this experience is what’s going to allow us to integrate more renewables onto the grid.”

United Power wants to help pioneer this new renewable energy option just as it did in 2009 with its community solar farm, which was the first electric utility solar farm in the country. The battery storage project is expected to break ground later this year. Initially, United Power will use this battery to offset the capacity component of its wholesale power bill. Once the research and understanding of the technology is determined, the community battery program could become reality.

And, then, electric co-ops will have another tool to use as they continue to bring more renewable energy into their systems.

Amy Higgins writes for Colorado’s electric cooperatives.