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Red Hook Community MicroGrid
As part of a statewide endeavor to modernize New York State's electric grid, spurring innovation and community partnerships with utilities, local governments, and private sector, NYSERDA awarded a $100,000 grant through their NY Prize competition to fund a feasibility study for the development of a Red Hook Community MicroGrid (RH-CMG).
The NY Prize grant was awarded to the RH-CMG project team, consisting of Friends of Brooklyn Community Board 6, Inc., the Red Hook New York Rising Community Reconstruction Planning Committee, Smarter Grid Solutions, and IMG Rebel. Together, the RH-CMG team assessed improved power resiliency for critical facilities and operations that can sustain this South Brooklyn waterfront community both on a day-to-day basis, and in future emergency events by using clean distributed energy and innovative microgrid controls that are financed through pioneering infrastructural investments.
Microgrids are local energy networks that are able to separate from the larger electrical grid during extreme weather events or emergencies, providing power to individual customers and crucial public services. The RH-CMG proposal and the Red Hook community's interest in the creation of a reliable and decentralized power system is an outcome of the Red Hook NY Rising Community Reconstruction Plan and Brooklyn Community Board 6's interest in expanding solar PV installations throughout the community district.
The NY Prize Competition is administered by NYSERDA, with support from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, to support community grid planning and development. NY Prize offers support for feasibility studies, audit-grade engineering design and business planning, and project build-out and post-operational monitoring. Having qualified for the first phase feasibility study, the RH-CMG project team can compete for another grant at the audit-grade engineering design and business planning phase. NYSERDA expects to award a total of roughly 50 NY Prize grants for feasibility studies throughout New York State.
Friends of Brooklyn Community Board 6, Inc., administered the grant and providing areawide municipal planning and outreach support; the Red Hook New York Rising Community Reconstruction Planning Committee which was the driving force that developed the neighborhood resiliency plans with New York State and will be providing project management and community engagement support; Smarter Grid Solutions, a New York-based international engineering firm specializing in active network management grid technologies, and; IMG Rebel, a global full-service infrastructure advisory firm specializing in developing innovative financing solutions while improving the management and development of infrastructure worldwide.