Moving forward with Microgrid- SPBMI

San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians (SPBMI) is a thriving community of over 1,500 residents. Over the years, the infrastructure growth has transformed the community life completely. The region, however, is notoriously affected by wildfires and the devastation reaches far beyond the loss of homes and businesses. The community gets hit often due to the reoccurring forest fires and this affects every aspect of life here from power disruption to infrastructures damage.

SPBMI’s critical infrastructures such as the admin buildings/tribal hall (a certified Red Cross center), including Fire, Police, Education departments experience multiple power outages each year; the longest outage in 2017 affected the five essential facilities for a period of 20 hours, thereby threatening the safety of everyone (Source: SPBMI). On top of that, the tribe ends up paying a relatively higher price ($0.256/kWh, source SPBMI) for grid electric service that has been deemed vulnerable to outages.

This unreliable power supply here at SPBMI creates an opportunity for a decentralized system; a microgrid can give resiliency, reliability, savings and above all, safety to the community.

SPBMI in partnership with Gridscape and Green Realities, a local EPC, has deployed a microgrid in this community to power the critical infrastructures.

The microgrid will increase the administration’s ability to provide essential services including first response, emergency sheltering, administration command and control.

Furthermore, the project execution and the annual maintenance will be done locally which will create employment opportunities for the tribe and benefit the local economy.

Additionally, the project aims to save approx. $78,286 annually in energy costs & roughly $1.9MN in 25 years. Furthermore; it will reduce the peak demands contributing to additional savings. The microgrid will also champion in helping SPBMI achieve net-zero energy consumption and will offset 112 MT of GHG annually.

The project will consist of the following.

New 156.8 kW Solar Carport PV system. Integrated with existing 24 kW solar at the Educational Center.
240kW/480kWh kWh EnergyScopeTM Microgrid ESS battery system, located at the designated area.
Six EV charging stations.
A critical load panel to power all emergency loads during a grid outage including a community charging station/emergency shelter for phone and laptop charging.
150kW Liquid Propane fueled Generator and storage tank.
Electrical and structural infrastructure upgrades.

1. The project will save approx. $78,286 in energy costs annually.
2. The project will also offset 112 MT of GHG annually.
3. The project will reduce the peak demand and will contribute to additional cost savings.

Source: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/12/f58/3.2-San-Pasqual-Microgrid.pdf