Green Options Advisory Committee Hears Solar Plan

Michael McDonald of Global Resilience Initiatives of Washington, D.C., shared a vision of energy independence with the town’s Green Options Advisory Committee last week.  JULIE LANE PHOTO

shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com - by Julie Lane - October 3, 2017

Ongoing coverage of the devastation Hurricane Maria left in Puerto Rico should be enough to prompt East End residents to plan for an age of energy independence separate from PSEG.

That’s how Michael McDonald of Washington, D.C.-based Global Resilience Initiatives Inc. sees it, and he’s working with East End officials to make energy dependence on a single source a thing of the past.

Mr. McDonald met with Shelter Island Green Options Advisory Committee members September 28 to talk about a time when PSEG would no longer have a monopoly providing electricity, but would have to compete for customers with energy cooperatives that would use 100 percent renewable solar power.

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The following is a comment by Michael D. McDonald . . .

It was a pleasure to meet with Shelter Island's Green Options Committee and to see the thought leadership Shelter Island is engaging to make its neighborhoods more resilient and sustainable.  Shelter Island has several good opportunities to advance its resilience, sustainability, and 21st century electrical services through a distributed collectively intelligent grid.  Given the devastation wrought by the 2017 hurricane season in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, Dominica, the US Virgin Islands, and many other Caribbean islands, Shelter Island and the East of Long Island, in general, have an opportunity to become resilient and sustainable, in advance of paying the price, such as in Puerto Rico, for moving too slowly toward a distributed, renewable grid from the vulnerable PSEG/LIPA centrally-controlled monopoly grid before its own post-hurricane or cyber attack blackout crisis happens.

As far as I know Mr. Weir, PSEG's Director of Communication, was not present in the Green Options Committee meeting in which I facilitated a discussion on Shelter Island's distributed renewable energy options.  He does not represent my point of view well perhaps because he did not actually hear my comments directly in the Committee discussions.  I would like to clarify Mr. Weir's misrepresentations.  

1) Perhaps, we should think of Mr. Weir's rhetoric in the context of his job and PSEG's fears that in fact homes, businesses, government buildings (e.g., public works' buildings, schools) and Shelter Island neighborhoods can become 100% renewable, and probably will be producing and storing their own energy in Shelter Island to an ever-increasing degree in the near future. If I were not a scientist concerned about evidence and facts, and I had to work for PSEG and represent their business interests, values, and monopoly principles, I might also be forced to use similar rhetorical techniques in the face of the fact that PSEG's business model and monopoly control of its antiquated fossil fuel-based grid is quickly slipping beyond the point of diminishing returns. The PSEG/LIPA centrally-controlled grid is already an economic disaster still forcing the rate-payers to carry the Shoreham nuclear power plant debacle debt long into the future from poor utility decision-making decades ago. Unfortunately, PSEG is now further recommending that rate-payers unnecessarily absorb over $2 billion more of new debt as a result of the South Fork RFP debacle. 

2) I am not claiming that "Hawaii uses 100% renewable energy" today as Mr. Weir states.  The Governor of Hawaii, David Ige, has, in fact, set Hawaii's goal to become 100% renewable by 2045, because Hawaiians are fleeing the fossil fuel-generated central grid at an accelerating rate, due to cost and climate change concerns. 

3) Mr. Weir stated that distributed renewable energy, such as solar and batteries would not provide energy during and after a hurricane.  That is correct, only if PSEG/LIPA policies continue to preclude people from using energy they produce and store behind their meter when the central grid is down.  This is one reason why we need to reject the PSEG/LIPA monopoly-controlled grid now that we can create open energy markets and community-based microgrids. Decentralized controllers, smart inverters and other technologies within the microgrids can do the job of keeping the lights on during and after events that cause central grid black outs with no threat to the central grid or its linesman. A central grid that precludes the use of solar and batteries behind the meter during emergency is unethical and an unnecessary health, human security, and economic hazard.

4) Mr. Weir stated, "Not only would the solar panels be useless during the storm, ..., but wind damage would likely result in a lot of panels being destroyed."  Actually, many solar panels are now rated for hurricane winds in the 120 to 140 mph range. In Puerto Rico, there was damage to older inferior solar arrays, but most of the solar capacity was OK in Puerto Rico after Maria.  Even in Dominica, where Maria hit with gusts of over 200 mph, their solar lights worked during and after the Cat 5 hurricane passed, while 99% of the central grid transmission and distribution system was destroyed, and is still not functional in 90% of the country three months later. 

5) In terms of LIPA providing back-up power, as Shelter Island moves toward 100% renewable energy, that would be fine from my point of view, but there are other better local sources of back-up power, such as in energy storage that will probably serve Shelter Island’s neighborhoods better.  The move toward a distributed renewable energy that can function when the central grid fails is a mission critical factor for Shelter Island’s residents and for the resilience of its community in the future. Now that we are already seeing the devastating impact of climate change, we need to transition to resilient networks with distributed renewable energy for a multiplicity of reasons. 

6) I am left questioning what is the cost of the new PSEG cable coming into Shelter Island?  What was the cost to rate-payers for the failed cable, for which PSEG was still paid a profit? 

By Kathy Gilbeaux
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