By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- The village could be home to a first-in-the-nation electricity “microgrid” that would feed power from local sources to essential community services in the event of a wider grid outage.

“This microgrid is being developed to address the resiliency of our area,” said Tom Ortmeyer, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Clarkson University who is leading the research in concert with National Grid and General Electric.

The planned microgrid is complex enough that “we’re doing things here that aren’t being done elsewhere,” Ortmeyer said.

“In this use of the term, resiliency addresses a community’s ability to withstand major impacts, such as the 1998 ice storm in our area or Hurricane Sandy that impacted downstate,” he said in a presentation on the project.

The Ice Storm of 1998 brought home the importance of developing such a system, when people in residents and businesses across hundreds of square miles in the North Country and the surrounding regions were without power, some for weeks, in the middle of winter.

The potential for tragedy was apparent downstate when Hurricane Sandy devastated New York City and Long Island in 2012.

It was after that that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other state officials began to look seriously at how to “harden” the electric grid in the state and find ways to keep the juice flowing to people who provide special services when they are needed most.

“These major events can include long term interruption of the bulk power grid,” Ortmeyer said. “We are designing the microgrid to operate independently for two weeks or more without connection to any outside electric power sources. To make this practical, it will serve only critical loads during that period.”

Those “critical loads” would include things like “emergency shelters and meals for community members who cannot sleep in their homes or prepare food in their homes. It will also provide housing, food and work support for the emergency services and restoration personnel. We are also investigating supplying a set of critical commercial establishments, including fuel, bank, grocery, and drug stores, as well as maintaining critical services such as water, sewer, police and fire.”

One of the advantages Potsdam has over other communities is the availability of so much power generated locally: the village’s hydropower generators on the Raquette, rated at about one megawatt at full capacity; about two megawatts from two generating units at SUNY Potsdam; an assortment of five generating units at Clarkson which could put out about .7 megawatts; and two megawatts from the new solar array next to the airport. In total that’s about six and a half megawatts “under the best conditions” – working turbines at the dams, lots of water for them, and lots of sun for the solar panels.

Otrtmeyer said he would like to find another four megawatts to be able to provide for a peak load of about nine megawatts plus some reserve for all the things they would like to do. “We’ve been talking with people who worked these events” such as the ice storm, Ortmeyer said, to see where they believe the priorities should fall.

Ortmeyer said one benefit of the microgrid would be able to offer reserves to National Grid if needed.

The primary distribution will be on 13.2 kilovolt lines that will deliver to all of the main recipients by underground lines.

“Being underground is nice, but expensive,” but that would be one of the best ways to gain the resiliency they desire for the project. Cables would be inside ductwork for further protection. Such a setup should avoid the ravages of wind, ice and falling tree limbs that are the biggest threat to overhead lines.

“We’re looking at putting the main feeder links, at about 400 to 500 amps, underground.” Those would be from the hydro dams, the solar array and other contributors. Parts of that, such as those leaving the hydro generators, are underground already.

“We’re in the electrical design stage to make sure we will have compatibility between the generators and loads and can operate without the grid present,” Ortmeyer said.

In order for the microgrid to operate, the system would have “grid-connected” and “standalone” modes. One of the challenges is devising switches, controllers and software to run them in order to move from connected to standalone mode. “That’s to protect workers, the general public, and equipment, so it has to be separated, and that requires special switching instruments” that have yet to be developed.

As it stands now, there exist some single-owner microgrids across the country, with one point of connection to a grid that has to be precisely managed, and there are a few multiple-owner grids, Ortmeyer said, but with the complexity of this project, “we’re doing things here that aren’t being done elsewhere.”

Since this project is in part experimental, one of the things they will attempt to calculate as part of the exercise is how much can be spent for the kind of service a microgrid could provide.

“If we get an ice storm, what are willing to pay to get through an event like that,” and with how much service? “That’s unknown. There’s not a good consensus on that. We’d like to see how that discussion plays out.”

“We’re looking for the right solution for the community, and we’re not sure we know exactly what that is right now, but it will be something that will help in an extreme event. Over the next 20 to 30 years, it could serve us well over that time.”