See below. I always highlight Action Items (AIs) in yellow. Please send any corrections or missing items.
jak
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Kotaro-san and the rest of the folks at Sony CSL led off with an excellent presentation on their microgrid work. They have been running a DC microgrid on Okinawa for 6 years and are now looking to expand the work out to encompass an AC microgrid. There was a lot of good discussion on the coupling between the microgrid and macrogrid and what the different architectural entities do. Shuli sent out the slides.
James kicked off a discussion about how the LF Energy Microgrid SIG could start the process of forming a consortium to submit a proposal to the recently announced US DOE Connected Communities RFP. Please see a list for an email with a more detailed description of the proposal idea. He primarily talked about opportunities in California, and specifically the Bay Area, since he is familiar with it. Lacking is a utility and a community organization, and large company participation to help fund the 30% matching contribution. Individual projects are projected to run $3m-$7m and total budget is $65m.
Ramanj said that he knows the manager of the innovation group at PG&E and offered to connect James.
AI Ramanj: send email to connect James and the PG&E innovation group manager.
Ramanj also suggested we contact some of the CCAs to find out if they were interested. James mentioned that Silicon Valley Clean Energy, the CCA that he buys his power from, has a program to support projects but the grants are not enough to fund the matching. James and Ramanj agreed to contact some CCAs about participating.
AI James, Ramanj:James to contact SVCE and the San Mateo CCA (Penninsula CCAs) and Ramanj to contact CCAs in East Bay
James also mentioned that he has contacted the executive director of Prospect SV, Doug Davenport, over LinkedIn, which has 3 building decarbonization projects running currently, and set up a phone call next week to discuss. He also contacted Ruth Cox, the former executive director, who now is the co-executive director of
EIT Climate-KIC California which is run out of Prospect SV, and has a call set up with her next week. From their web page: "EIT Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private partnership
addressing climate change through innovation to build a zero carbon
economy."
Ken mentioned that probably there would be a better chance of getting funded if the location was not California because there were already so many projects being funded there, and James agreed, though in California CEC funding may be available and that may not be the case elsewhere. Ken offered to follow up by surveying utilities, co-ops, and community organizations in North Carolina to see if there would be any interest there.
AI Ken: Survey organizations in North Carolina that might want to participate.
Shuli asked Ahlmahz whether Tacoma Power might want to participate, and she said that they were already in discussions on another consortium proposal involving DR.
For the next meeting on Nov. 17, a presentation from the RIAPS group is planned, and the Monash group would also like to present. Scheduling is still TBD.
