Why and How to Bring Microgrids to Small Town America

By Lisa Cohn, Microgrid Knowledge

This spring, the Poudre Valley Electric Association (PVREA), which provides power to northern Colorado, plans to test a microgrid for a small town that has experienced outages because of car accidents on curvy roads, extreme weather, and, in September, a fire that left the town without power for 52 hours.

The microgrid, which will replace the single transmission line that serves the town of Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, offers up an example of the value of microgrids to small town, remote communities.

With a population of about 400, Red Feather Lakes sits at an elevation of 8,300 feet and experiences winds as high as 80 mph. The microgrid will provide resilience to the fire station, library and local businesses as well as lowering power purchase costs for the local utility.

Poudre Valley is one of more than 800 electric cooperatives in the United States, a form of utility that, as it turns out, are good candidates for distributed energy resources, according to a report released...Continue reading on Microgrid Knowledge.