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Power Engineering International

Doe Dishes Out Award For Hydropower-Based Microgrids In Puerto RicoPuerto Rico Hydro Microgrid Partners has been selected as one of 10 Phase 2 winners of the Solutions for Lasting, Viable Energy Infrastructure Technologies (SOLVE IT) Prize, for its plan to improve community resiliency with small hydropower microgrids for low-resourced, rural communities in Puerto Rico. The team was originally chosen as a Phase 1 winner in May 2024, through which it received $80,000. The second phase brought an additional $150,000 for each winner, and approximately three grand prize winners of the SOLVE IT Prize will receive $500,000 each, which can help them implement their clean energy community project. Phase 3 winners are anticipated to be announced in July 2025. Puerto Rico Hydro Microgrid Partners consists of the Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña, an electric energy cooperative, and Green Power Technologies Puerto Rico, the San Juan Daily Star reports. “Hydroelectric power has a historic and critical role in Puerto Rico, serving as the original source of electricity, especially in the mountains,” said Sam Talman, director of energy services at Green Power Technologies Puerto Rico. “With our innovative distributed and scalable turbine technology, and with the support of the DOE, we can continue to take advantage of the natural resources in Puerto Rico to provide resilient, cost-effective, and clean energy to our communities.” Have you read?Weighing vortexes as a method to optimise hydroelectric power efficiencyGE Vernova to modernise Dominion Energy’s Saluda Hydro plant Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña already has plans in place for a hydroelectric-based microgrid, although it’s not yet clear whether DOE funding will be available for this project. The Microrred de la Montaña, or “Microgrid of the Mountain” project would be the first inter-municipal microgrid in Puerto Rico, combining the generation of hydroelectric plants and photovoltaic systems to power new 38-kilovolt lines between the towns of Adjuntas, Jayuya, Lares and Utuado. In September 2021, Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña presented the project to the mayors of Adjuntas, Jayuya, Lares, and Utuado. By October, the mayors of Adjuntas, Jayuya, and Lares endorsed the Memorandum of Understanding between the municipalities and the Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña. In March 2024, Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña was selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to participate in the Communities LEAP program to continue developing the Microgrid of the Mountain project, providing the equivalent of half a million dollars of technical assistance for the next 18 months, provided by the national labs. Additionally, Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de la Montaña’s Hidroenergía Renace project, or the Hydro Energy Reborn project, is currently sitting in limbo, but the project’s timeline page includes a mention of the SOLVE IT prize. This project would consist of the acquisition, restoration, and generation of electricity through the hydroelectric plants of Caonillas and Dos Bocas, currently “underused or in total disuse.” The generative capacity of these hydroelectric plants when newly built was 43MWh, but currently, only 6MW are “sporadically” generated by these plants. The cooperative estimates that the generative capacity of these hydroelectric plants can be improved to 50MWh, and the project would take around 18 months from its approval of financing, estimated at about $120-150 million dollars. In July 2023, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) celebrated the ribbon–cutting of its Microgrid in a Box, which was deployed in partnership with the Fall River Electric Cooperative at its 7.4MW Felt hydropower plant in Idaho. INL researchers demonstrated how hydropower combined with advanced controls and the use of a mobile microgrid can enable small communities to maintain critical services during emergencies. At the ribbon–cutting, power from the Microgrid in a Box simulated a critical load, while the team showed how the hydropower plant could be used to restore the grid after a simulated electrical grid blackout in a process called a blackstart. The Relocatable Resiliency Alternative Power Improvement Distribution Microgrid in a Box, also known as RAPID MIB, is a portable, self-contained grid system developed by INL engineers in collaboration with private industry and government customers. It enables the integration and optimization of multiple energy sources — such as hydropower, solar panels, wind turbines, diesel generators, or small nuclear reactors — to ensure a reliable and resilient power supply in remote or off-grid locations, or during emergency situations or power outages. “There are hundreds of hydropower plants like this one serving small communities across the country,” said Thomas Mosier, INL’s energy systems group lead, at the time. “What we’ve demonstrated are new technologies that can enable these communities to use the hydropower resources they already have to restart and maintain stable power to essential services, even during an emergency event.” In a much colder region, the city of Cordova in Alaska is a microgrid, withstanding earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, volcanic eruptions, and winter superstorms to deliver power to 2,700 residents and fishing and tourism industries. Cordova has had a historic collaboration with DOE that changed the city’s electrical system into a model for resilient and modern technology. Through a series of projects, Cordova Electric Cooperative upgraded its microgrid just as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) upgraded its research capabilities, resulting in a match of grid innovation in both research and deployment, DOE said. Cordova occupies a peninsula in the Gulf of Alaska. All its electricity comes from two hydro plants on either side of the peninsula or from diesel fuel that is barged in. These two energy sources lacked the flexibility to supply Cordova’s unique loads — which can multiply four-fold when fishing boats offload their catch. The SOLVE IT Prize was developed by the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and is funded by the Technology Commercialization Fund through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The prize aims to empower communities to identify and implement “innovative clean energy solutions” that meet their unique needs. Competitors collaborated with critical stakeholders to develop community-led energy solutions in an effort to build support for local clean energy or decarbonization projects. “The SOLVE IT Prize is helping communities across the country guide their own clean energy transition, as the experts on their regions”, said DOE CCO and director of the Office of Technology Transitions Dr. Vanessa Z. Chan, “Winners are getting resources to help their communities identify and implement clean energy solutions that work within their specific context.” Originally published by Sean Wolfe on hydroreview.com

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Jan 09, 2025

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