Town in Energy ‘Microgrid’ Contest
The Town of East Hampton will participate in NY Prize, the state’s $40 million competition to design small-scale “green” power-generating stations known as microgrids. Microgrid systems, which can meet a community’s energy demand through solar, wind, or hydroelectricity generation, are able to separate from the larger electric grid during extreme weather and provide power to the grid when needed.
John Botos, an environmental technician with the town’s Natural Resources Department and a member of its energy sustainability advisory committee, said that the competition, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week, is one avenue toward the town’s goal of meeting 100 percent of communitywide electricity needs with renewable energy sources by 2020 and the equivalent of 100 percent of economywide energy needs, such as electricity, heating, and transportation, with renewables by 2030.
The competition is accepting proposals. Not only governments but community organizations, nonprofit entities, and for-profit companies are eligible to participate. Proposed projects must be integrated into utility networks and serve at least one “critical infrastructure” installation, such as a hospital, police station, fire station, or water-treatment facility.
The town board and energy sustainability committee, Mr. Botos said, will evaluate “different opportunities as to how we can take advantage of the prize competition.” Should Montauk become separated from the rest of Long Island in extreme weather, for example, the hamlet could maintain an energy supply through a microgrid situated there, he said. The Town Hall complex and the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton Village are potential sites for a secondary microgrid. The town may also explore a partnership with the Town of Southampton to leverage a greater benefit from the microgrid competition, Mr. Botos said.
The competition’s launch coincides with renewed criticism of PSEG Long Island, which operates the Long Island Power Authority’s electricity grid, by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. The utility, Mr. Thiele said in a statement issued on Tuesday, announced a plan to request new power sources in Montauk without informing town officials or residents. That move followed the closure of existing peaker plants, which run during high demand, in Montauk several years ago, the construction of a much-criticized transmission line through residential neighborhoods in East Hampton, and LIPA’s rejection, in December, of an offshore wind farm.
“It would be naive to say decisions PSEG Long Island and LIPA make don’t impact us,” Mr. Botos said, “but the town is moving forward in trying to meet our targets. . . . Rather than waiting for PSEG Long Island to act in what would be the best interest of the community, the town and the energy sustainability committee are working closely with the Natural Resources Department to reach our goals through a variety of initiatives.”
Another such initiative, he said, is a Solarize South Fork campaign in which commercial and residential building owners in the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton and the Villages of East Hampton, Southampton, and Sag Harbor would collectively purchase solar installations to reduce costs. East Hampton’s Natural Resources Department, with Southampton’s Department of Municipal Works, will lead that effort, which the East Hampton Town Board has approved, Mr. Botos said.
“We don’t want more peaker plants,” he said. “We understand that we need some sort of fossil-fuel source as a backup, but there are other ways of doing things. This will be interesting to see how we work together to get this to happen,” he said of the town’s clean-energy initiatives, “keeping in mind what our community wants and what’s feasible and affordable.”