Tampa Electric pilots community microgrid platform
Emera Technologies has announced that utility Tampa Electric Company (TECO) has purchased, installed and received regulatory approval for its BlockEnergy community microgrid platform.
The platform will be used in a pilot programme serving Southshore Bay residential development, a community south of Tampa, Florida.
The BlockEnergy solar-plus-energy storage microgrid aims to enable increased operability, security, and grid resilience to mitigate extreme weather and other events that can impact electric utility grid uptime.
Through the platform, TECO hopes to secure a cost-effective way to offer a distributed clean energy resource to its Southshore Bay customers and advance its vision to achieve a net-zero carbon future.
With this utility-owned business model, homeowners still pay for electricity at the same metered rate as they normally would, with no extra grid charges or other fees.
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Participants will see 80% of their home energy come from the sun. It also aims to mitigate the necessity of a solar contractor, permit and interconnection processes and system operation and maintenance.
Dave Pickles, vice president of electric delivery of Tampa Electric, stated: “The BlockEnergy microgrid pilot project is a promising solution that brings a new layer of control, operability and flexibility. It’s one that can directly benefit our customers and help us to realise our net-zero vision.”
Rob Bennett, Emera Technologies CEO, added: “We are excited TECO is leading the way by adopting BlockEnergy for Southshore Bay and providing a model residential community that other utilities can learn from, follow suit and continue to make the necessary changes we need for a cleaner, more grid-resilient future.”
The Southshore Bay residential community, developed in partnership with Lennar Homes (home builder) and Metro Development Group (land developer) is comprised of 37 new homes all equipped with fully-integrated, shared rooftop solar PV systems.
Each home has a battery storage and power electronic control system, or BlockBox, which connects to the neighborhood distribution network, where it communicates and shares energy as needed within the community.
A central energy park is located near the entrance of Southshore Bay, containing supplemental batteries, optional additional generation for use during outages, and a connection to the electric utility power grid.
After two years of pilot testing and optimising the platform at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico (in collaboration with Sandia Laboratories), BlockEnergy received approval from the Florida Public Service Commission for Southshore Bay as a four-year pilot project.
