The City of Eastport may be the site of a $10 million model smart microgrid project developed over the next five years if all goes well with future agreements between the city and the tidal energy innovator Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC). However, ORPC President John Ferland cautioned the need for patience and perseverance as he wrapped up his public presentation on the project to the city council by virtual means on the evening of July 16.
     The project would be phased over a five year period and would combine solar, tidal and energy storage as a model of a smart microgrid system. While connected to the larger energy grid, the microgrid could have a section of it isolated to continue running specific buildings or city resources while there are power outages. During the question-and-answer section of his presentation, Ferland explained that having a few priority buildings be able to run during outages is "a cornerstone" of smart microgrid projects.
     It's possible that the city could have all of its energy needs met with locally produced renewable energy. Ferland said, "We feel the potential is real." He added, "At this point we feel the opportunity involves a combination of solar energy, tidal energy and an energy storage system, configured for interaction with the local grid via smart grid controls." In most cases, he explained, "the local grid would remain connected to the Versant regional grid while still providing the local renewable energy supply. In scenarios where there is an outage to the regional grid, the intent is for the local grid to continue operating to meet community needs."
     How the city's energy needs, existing and future, would be met, including the sizing of the smart microgrid system and "options for how the system addresses community needs, how the system is phased in over time" and more would be addressed during the feasibility phase, Ferland said.

The five year process
     The ball is now in the court of the Eastport City Council. Next steps would be for it to sign a memorandum of understanding with ORPC and for the company to work with the city administration to define, schedule and find funding opportunities. In addition, a number of informational meetings would be held for the public. With council support, ORPC would plan and design the system by the end of 2020; construct from 2021 through 2024, with solar use by the end of 2021, storage capacity in place and smart grid controls in by the end of 2022 and tidal power generation in service by the end of 2023. The company anticipates tidal energy testing and development would take place from 2020 to 2023 in Cobscook Bay and then Western Passage. From 2025 onward ORPC would plan to assess the system, adapt and address new opportunities.

New energy models for national security
     New energy storage models to allow for microgrid operations are part of a national security strategy, explained Ferland, with Senators Angus King and Susan Collins having written a funding bill that would support such models. In 2016 the Obama administration issued a report, "Smart Grid and Cyber Challenges," illustrating two areas of concern: attacks on the physical power system and attacks using the power system to sabotage other infrastructure systems including commercial, financial and governmental.
     The U.S. Department of Defense sponsored a project, Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security (SPIDERS), with the goals of protecting critical assets and continuing military operations from loss of power and of integrating renewable and other types of distributed energy generation to run critical military assets in times of emergency while also reducing petroleum use and cost. The project, used on military installations, specifically utilizes microgrid structures with smart grid technologies and renewables combined with distributed energy and energy storage. The Federal Energy Management Program summarizes the usefulness of SPIDERS in other applications, stating, "It signals a new era in thinking with regard to infrastructure resiliency, as the technology being demonstrated may be applied to water systems, oil and gas pipelines, transportation systems, hospitals, emergency systems and critical industrial applications."
     ORPC has been working with the community of Igiugig, Alaska, to create a smaller microgrid model system. For more information about ORPC, visit ORPC.