Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

39 New Jersey, hard hit by Superstorm Sandy, reacted with a variety of resiliency and infrastructure "hardening" proposals from state and utility sources. One important state policy vehicle designed for resiliency responses was the State Action Plan (Amended) NJ Department of Community Affairs. 15 Therein the State proposed to create the New Jersey Energy Resilience Bank (NJ ERB) to continue to pursue innovation and build energy resilience. The Bank's mission was to provide funding to facilitate the development of distributed generation projects, microgrids, and other resilient technology designs at critical facilities throughout the State. The Bank was to provide incremental resources, in combination with private and public funds, to New Jersey's critical facilities need to invest in fuel cells, combined heat and power, solar with storage, and other technology that will better prepare for future weather events. Analysis following Superstorm Sandy determined that only seven percent of its total wastewater capacity had distributed generation that can be islanded. The NJ ERB announced a prioritization scheme, starting with water and wastewater facilities, followed by hospitals, then schools that could be used as refuge centers, police and fire stations, and other key community infrastructure. "Distributed energy resources proved extremely resilient following Superstorm Sandy; unfortunately, due to high initial costs, many critical facilities do not have these energy resilience solutions in place," Michele Brown, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, said in a statement. 16 Facilities without resilient technology remain highly vulnerable to energy supply issues or must otherwise rely on diesel-powered generators to sustain operations. A large number of plants in the State have no existing distributed generation, and many of these facilities are good candidates for combined heat and power or other technologies. In January 2013, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced a Climate Change Preparedness Plan that included $40 million for a Community Clean Energy Resiliency Initiative. Massachusetts DOER "Community Clean Energy Resiliency Initiative" funded by $40 million in Alternative Compliance Payments (ACP). These are payments that are made by electric retail suppliers to the State if they have insufficient Renewable or Alternative Energy Certificates to meet their compliance obligations under the Renewable and Alternative Portfolio Standard programs. As a consequence of this Preparedness Plan, in September 25, 2014 MA DOER announced Project Implementation awards for six projects to assist in implementing clean energy technologies intended to improve resiliency at critical facilities. The largest single grant in this round was $2.8 million awarded to Baystate Health hospital Springfield, MA for an islandable and black start capable combined heat and power facility (CHP) at this regional hospital. In total, $7.4 million in total project implementation grants was awarded to 6 communities and their partners in Round 1. 17

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