The landmark district home to the most famous bridge in New York is becoming a spider web of local microgrids backed by the authorities in search for greater energy security when facing such devastating phenomena as was the earthquake Sandy in 2012 that left 750,000 New Yorkers without power.
Local and clean energy to cope with disasters. One should not forget that Brooklyn is one of the most populated districts of the giant American city where more than 2,600,000 people live and through which many thousands pass daily. The residents of this New Yorker «borough» who benefit from these new electrical installations are connected to the electricity grid but have an ace up their sleeve by disposing of energy in any situation of emergency caused by storms or other natural or technical disasters.
The Brooklyn Microgrid project managed by a team of professionals in the energy sector that includes both software engineers and developers, among others, is having an absolute success. There are already more than thirty microgrids in such diverse places as schools, neighborhood communities, churches, businesses, shops or health centers. The facilities are executed at the request of Brooklyn´s inhabitants, through the collection of signatures, and there are always outstanding letters of request. Fifteen, for example, when writing this report, including a fuel oil company.
Shielding their energy future
«Citizens are giving a very important first step towards shielding their energy future. Ensuring a continuous energy supply, both medical facilities and neighboring communities can be supplied with reliable basic services and be better protected from disastrous events. I encourage communities statewide to participate in the «NY Prize program» to make their energy systems stronger and more resilient» said in this respect the governor of the city, Andrew Mark Cuomo, in his remarks published by Brooklyn microgrid.
The NY Prize program is a public program to help communities reduce costs, promote clean energy and make the power grid more reliable and resilient. It is a statewide goal that aims to modernize the New Yorker electrical system, stimulating innovation and collaboration between citizens, public utilities, local governments and the private sector. To this end, it has created a competition with a budget of 40 million dollars open to participation of projects aimed at achieving these goals.
«Community microgrids protect residents and entrepreneurs of some of the devastating effects that we have seen after storms like Sandy, Irene and Lee. I am very pleased to see that many of the cities of the State of New York that were impacted the most by these storms have registered in the first phase of the NY Prize competition. The microgrid technology is one of the key among the state efforts to build a more resilient, reliable and efficient «energy infrastructure, said Richard Kauffman, Chairman of Energy and Finance NYSERDA
