Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

Distributed Energy's Role in Community Resiliency Recent widespread power outages of long duration have galvanized interest in new approaches for improving society's capacity to respond to and recover from natural or man-made calamities. Hurricanes, snowstorms, flooding and icing have exposed the inadequacies of current approaches to mitigating the impacts of power outages that are so often a consequence of these events. When emergencies occur, retaining power at critical infrastructure is a paramount public health and safety concern. Insuring continuity of power supply at hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities keeps vulnerable populations safe in place. Supplying power, heating and cooling to multifamily apartments, condos and co-ops during outages reduces the numbers of people that may otherwise require assistance. Providing centers of refuge that offer temporary safe shelter for those who can't stay at their residences is an essential tool for disaster recovery. When sources of power generation, storage, and power demand controls are located at or near the buildings that they serve, these are known as "distributed energy resources". With these onsite energy resources there is an opportunity to significantly enhance the reliability and resiliency of electricity service at the site. Combined heat and power (CHP) provides the additional benefit of "heat resiliency" as a byproduct of greater electric power reliability at a site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines CHP (also known as cogeneration) as the simultaneous production of electricity and heat from a single fuel source, such as: natural gas, biomass, biogas, coal, waste heat, or oil. 1 This White Paper examines the role of distributed energy resources as a component of a community resiliency strategy. Pace Energy & Climate Center has been intimately involved in championing policies and programs that recognize and compensate the societal and electric grid benefits that can be provided by clean distributed energy resources. Pace served as an expert resource to the State of Connecticut and to certain communities in the development of their first in nation Microgrid Pilot Program designed to promote resiliency in critical infrastructure. As of this writing, Pace is working with 12 communities in New York State that were recipients of the NY Prize Stage 1 Feasibility Study grants to investigate the technical feasibility and economic viability of microgrids to meet community resiliency needs. Pace has been an active party in New York's Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) proceeding where issues pertaining to creating a more efficient, affordable, resilient and clean energy supply system are undergoing a thorough review. In Section One, distributed energy resources (DER) are defined with some examples provided. Communities across New York and other Northeast States have identified microgrids as an important component of a regional resiliency strategy. A microgrid extends the concept of distributed energy resources from a single building context, to multiple interconnected buildings utilizing a suite of DER to supply power, heat and to manage and optimize building energy demands. The potential contribution of DER and Microgrids for enhancing community resiliency is described. In the second section, existing approaches to providing electric power, heating and cooling during disruptions in energy supply are addressed. Conventional methods for providing emergency and backup power are discussed. There are existing codes and standards that require certain important infrastructure be capable of providing emergency power during grid outages. However, recent extreme weather events have 28

• Cover