‘Ambitious’ Oregon Laws Clear Path for Microgrid Deployment

With Oregon enacting the nation’s most far-reaching microgrid laws, supporters see a difficult however achievable path to spice up rural power supply and resilience.

Gov. Tina Kotek signed into regulation on July 17, Home Payments 2065 and 2066, companion laws that goals to extend entry to microgrids—localized power techniques able to working independently from the primary energy grid throughout outages. “These new legal guidelines will assist carry extra microgrids on-line quicker and ship value financial savings to shoppers in each a part of the state,” she mentioned. 

There are at the moment no community-owned or operated microgrids in Oregon. Most now are owned by utilities, governments or non-public companies. There now are 692 microgrids working in seven U.S. states: Alaska, California, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas, in line with the Middle for Local weather and Power Options cited by law firm Schwabe, Williamson and wyatt  in an replace.

The brand new legal guidelines, which take impact on Jan. 1, purpose to streamline the state’s microgrid regulatory and improvement course of. HB 2065 requires utilities to judge microgrid interconnection requests based mostly on clear security and reliability requirements. HB 2066 directs the Oregon Public Utility Fee to create a regulatory framework for each group and personal microgrids and authorizes native governments to designate “microgrid zones” and allows massive power customers — resembling hospitals, faculties and important infrastructure to connect with microgrid techniques. 

“That is essentially the most bold and complete laws within the nation,” says Dylan Kruse, president of Portland-based nonprofit Sustainable Northwest, which advocates for microgrid expertise. “We’ve gotten calls from a dozen different states asking about this,” he provides, noting that different states’ regulation has been extra in pilot kind.

Kruse says the laws supplies “guidelines of the highway” for regulators, municipalities, utilities and personal builders,, with initiatives in a position to “leverage much more non-public sources.”

However investor-owned utilities Portland Normal Electrical and Pacific Energy opposed the payments, which acquired near-unanimous legislative assist. The businesses argued they duplicate present processes and introduce security dangers by permitting third-party entry to energy infrastructure.

“We’ve seen different states take
swings at items of this, however extra in pilot kind,” he mentioned. Although
implementation will possible take a yr or two, relying on how briskly
OPUC strikes, the payments might present a mannequin for different Western states
the place grid reliability and energy affordability are of rising concern,
he added.

Progress Potential

“Microgrids are one of many sectors during which we see essentially the most potential for progress within the coming years,” says Karina Hershberg, affiliate principal at Portland-based PAE Engineers. “The expertise is maturing proper on the time that the necessity is rising.”

Microgrids are self-contained power techniques that may generate, retailer and distribute electrical energy domestically—whereas additionally connecting to the bigger grid. They usually combine renewable sources, battery storage or backup turbines to create an influence “island” throughout outages.

In rural areas of western states, the place wildfires and public security energy shutoffs have gotten extra frequent, microgrids are seen as a software for native power resilience, holding crucial infrastructure working even when the broader grid is compromised.

As regulators, municipalities, utilities, and buyers work by way of detalls of implementing the laws, Kruse says he’s optimistic that by the tip of subsequent yr, “hopefully individuals will begin to submit functions” for microgrid improvement.

Hershberg is much less sure, saying, “There may be a lot change occurring within the power trade proper now that it’s exhausting to foretell any specifics even a pair months ahead.” She additionally cautions that the “path ahead has change into unclear” for some initiatives within the wake of cuts in federal renewable power assist.