Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today announced the launch of its Microgrid Incentive Program (MIP) and handbook, providing funding, expertise, and guidance for building community, local, and tribal government-proposed multi-customer microgrids.
The MIP is a new, statewide $200 million competitive grant program which will fund clean-energy community microgrids in disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.
The California Public Utilities Commission authorized and approved the new program, allocating $79.2 million in project funding for PG&E, $83.3 million for Southern California Edison, and $17.5 million for San Diego Gas and Electric. Projects selected under the MIP can receive up to $15 million in award funding each for the design and development of a multi-customer, front-of-the-meter community microgrid.
A community microgrid is a group of customers and distributed energy resources – such as a solar array and battery – within clearly defined electrical boundaries with the ability to disconnect, operate independently from, and reconnect to the grid – a capability also known as “islanding.”
With their ability to operate independently from or in parallel with the grid, microgrids are meant to strengthen the resilience of communities by providing reliable power during outages or emergencies. A community microgrid’s distributed energy resources can also participate in the statewide wholesale market for energy and related services – creating a potential source of earnings for the asset owner and providing an additional buffer for the California grid.
The MIP stands beside PG&E’s Community Microgrid Enablement Program (CMEP), and together the two programs provide comprehensive financial and technical support for both the distributed energy resources and other costs necessary to develop and energize eligible microgrids, as well as the electric distribution system upgrades necessary to enable the safe islanding of the microgrid. Interested parties can apply for either one individually, or for both programs together.
The Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid is the first fully renewable, multi-customer microgrid deployed in PG&E’s service area. It serves as the model for additional multi-customer microgrids to be deployed in California, and the Community Microgrid Enablement Tariff was also a product of its development.
