More than a month after Hurricane Maria lashed Puerto Rico, only about a quarter of the island’s 3.5 million people have access to electricity. Public Affairs Secretary Ramon Rosario estimates that 80 percent of electric transmission and distribution lines are down, leaving critical facilities such as hospitals and schools in the dark and infrastructure for water and communication without the power needed to operate.
“Electricity is at the center of all economic activity and at the core of recovery after disaster,” says Mark Lambrides, senior energy specialist for the Caribbean and Latin America at the World Bank. “When electricity is down, water systems, public safety, hospitals and businesses suffer.”
Despite its vital role, electricity is one of the only mediums that has not historically had storage options to build reserves in case of emergency, says Brian Perusse, vice president of international market development for AES Energy Storage. Reliance on physical wires to transport to the homes and communities it serves make it especially susceptible to natural disasters and compounds the need for a backup plan, experts say.
“The U.S. has something like 20 minutes of storage duration total once electricity is generated. Other sectors may have days, or years if you’re looking at data,” Perusse says. The broad goal is to build an electricity network that’s more like the internet, he says, with multiple levels of interconnectedness and storage embedded dispersed throughout.
Developing and implementing microgrid infrastructure and energy storage batteries have helped places in the Dominican Republic and Japan stay resilient against Mother Nature’s blows and create hope for a sustainable way forward. Instead of relying on a single power source, these technologies disperse smaller power sources throughout the network, effectively bringing them closer to their recipients. Such a practice shortens power lines that can stretch for miles and be highly susceptible to the elements, while also providing a backup source of energy.
Experts agree that the long-term economic benefits of a microgrid infrastructure supported by storage batteries are many, but initial costs for the relatively new technologies are high.
This creates challenges for indebted territories such as Puerto Rico, which currently faces more than $70 billion in debt. Elon Musk of technology company Tesla, Inc. is installing solar power and Tesla Powerpack battery units to help to turn the power back on at Hospital del Nino, a children’s hospital on the ravaged island. A tweet response from Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello seems to indicate a promising private-public partnership.
But sometimes, national governments fund research and development projects to start the process.
In 2011, the Tohoku, or Great East Japan Earthquake, rattled the east Asian island nation with a 9.0 magnitude shock followed by a massive tsunami with waves of up to 128 feet. The disaster killed more than 15,000 people and knocked the lights out across the northeastern areas of the country for months. Only this past February, nearly six years later, were fishermen allowed to return to the Ukedo port in Fukushima. One third-generation fisherman reportedly called it ” the first step to return to my life.”
In the midst of widespread tragedy and chaos across Japan, one hospital was instead able to save lives by maintaining continuous power and uninterrupted patient care.
The learning hospital on the campus of Tohoku Fukushi University had been operating on a microgrid system powered by natural gas and supported by battery storage since 2004. Initially funded by a government research and development agency, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), the country’s largest telecom company took over management of the Sendai project and extended it beyond the four-year study.
According to a project report from NEDO, the Tohoku Electric Power Company that served the area surrounding the university suffered a three-day blackout in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. But the Sendai microgrid and energy storage provided continuous power “despite the devastating damage to the power delivery system and the Tohoku area” and “demonstrated that microgrids are a very effective power supply system in times of disaster.”
“Resiliency in the power sector involves multiple factors,” Lambrides says. “You have to produce power and you have to get it to people, and you don’t want either of those to go down.”
Most Caribbean islands operate on an energy infrastructure with one large generator powered by expensive imported fossil fuels and long, above-ground cables to reach communities across the island.
In terms of energy production, sustainable alternatives like wind and solar power greatly increase the overall resiliency of island nations by replacing the economic burden of import tariffs for oil and transportation risks in times of emergency with increasingly affordable sources that are found at home, Lambrides says.
But the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine all the time, and sometimes multiple category 3 and 4 hurricanes make landfall within a month.
Energy storage systems help buffer the resulting fluctuations in the power supply and take over in times of need. Distributing energy reserves to multiple batteries across the island also strengthens the system in terms of power delivery, with shorter wires and the option to isolate certain areas of the grid.
When Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the Dominican Republic at the end of the summer, wind gusts reached nearly 60 mph and storm surges pushed water levels up to 6 feet above normal.
But two 10-megawatt energy storage units commissioned from AES Energy Storage in the Santo Domingo region just weeks before Hurricane Irma hit stayed resilient. Their integration with the nation’s interconnected electricity system ” played a key role in maintaining grid stability,” discharging up to 60 percent more energy than usual to regulate operating conditions.
Distributing energy across microgrids also helped areas of New York stay on the grid during Hurricane Sandy and a flower farmer in Puerto Rico maintain his business in the face of Hurricane Maria.
Experts agree that energy storage options that promote the use of sustainable resources are efficient and resilient solutions for island nations and others that face the threat of natural disaster. High initial costs create a barrier to entry, but costs are dropping. Perusse says there’s about a 20 percent price cut each year.
The next phase is to get energy storage integrated into networks around the world, he says, imagining a 100-megawatt unit powering a community, half a megawatt tucked behind a hospital and even smaller for individual homes.
“Hopefully new values and possibilities will open up as the costs come down.”
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Microgrids and Energy Storage Create Sustainable Electricity Options in Face of Disaster originally appeared on usnews.com
