Poudre Valley REA installs microgrid for Red Feather Lakes

FORT COLLINS — Poudre Valley REA debuted a new microgrid for Red Feather Lakes on Oct. 7.

The company said in a press statement that the energy resource system is meant to improve “energy management and integrate various generation sources in Red Feather Lakes … to maintain power for up to eight hours when other parts of the grid are temporarily unavailable.”

Power outages often accompany “extreme weather and wildfires,” the release said. A microgrid can help support “fire response, emergency medical services, shelter, broadband, telecoms, food, fuel and water” providers.

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Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

The microgrid’s energy resources include a 140-KW, 446-KWh Tesla Powerpack battery, 8-KW of solar photovoltaic, and a 130-KW propane generator, the press release said. It was developed by local, regional and national groups including equipment manufacturer Microgrid Encorp LLC in Fort Collins, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. in Westminster and the town of Red Feather Lakes’ library and volunteer fire department.

Poudre Valley president and CEO Jeff Wadsworth said that in addition to helping Red Feather Lakes, the new microgrid’s performance will provide performance information for its work and other U.S. electric co-ops.

“We are able to start learning what a microgrid does, what we can do with it and apply that knowledge to future projects,” said Wadsworth. “When costs and performance of batteries improve, we will be able to put microgrid technologies in other areas in our system.”

Nonprofit electric co-op Poudre Valley REA provides power to 48,000 homes and businesses in Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties.

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