California tests off-the-grid solutions to power outages as extreme heat, fires threaten supply

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[BenLurkin]

During both crises, a Native American reservation on California’s far northern coast kept the electricity flowing with the help of two microgrids that can disconnect from the larger electrical grid and switch to using solar energy generated and stored in battery banks near its hotel-casino.

As most of rural Humboldt County sat in the dark during a planned shutoff in October 2019, the Blue Lake Rancheria became a lifeline for thousands of its neighbors: The gas station and convenience store provided fuel and supplies, the hotel housed patients who needed a place to plug in medical devices, the local newspaper used the conference room to put out the next day’s edition, and a hatchery continued pumping water to keep its fish alive.

During a few hours of rolling blackouts last August, the reservation’s microgrids went into “island mode” to help ease stress on the state’s maxed-out grid.

Energy experts said the tribe’s $8 million microgrids highlight the technology’s potential in providing reliable power to hospitals, fire stations and other small-scale operations that can provide emergency services during a disaster, and to remote communities vulnerable to power loss.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I worked in the power industry from 1973 to 2000. We built reliable plants and kept the lights on. Outages were rare.

The entire industry succumbed to the greens, went woke, and turned to SH!T. I got out when the handwriting was on the wall. When I started, there was an “obligation to serve” for the regulated utilities.