The federal government suggests more clean energy is a good
option.
On Wednesday the Department of Energy (DOE) released a report detailing its vision for rebuilding
a resilient energy system in Puerto
Rico. It suggested hardening infrastructure, as well as integrating clean
energy technologies such as solar and energy storage into the island’s energy
portfolio.
The report is intended to assist the island’s government in
drafting recovery plans and guiding the use of federal aid. While the DOE
recognized that a singular vision for the island’s future must be determined by
the Commonwealth, it said its report should serve as a guideline in drafting
that plan.
This document is just the latest in a growing group of energy
concepts that cropped up after Hurricane Maria disrupted nearly all of
the island’s energy infrastructure in September. Like many of them, the DOE
report attributed some of the ruin to a lack of maintenance by the Puerto Rico
Electric Power Authority.
“DOE observed that, generally, PREPA designed the
electricity system well, as evidenced by the uncompromised power stations and
effective ‘dead end’ structures,” the report reads, but it adds, “It became
clear that the system was weakened over time to the point of catastrophic
failure.”
According to data from Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, several measures of PREPA system interruptions were above average
and in the third quartile among U.S. utilities.
To prevent a similar situation in the future, the DOE
recommended updates to transmission and distribution infrastructure and a
reconsideration of generation resources on the island.
In updating transmission and distribution infrastructure,
DOE recommended that the system be rebuilt, at a minimum, to follow the Rural
Utilities Service standards used by utilities in the rural U.S. The DOE also
said PREPA should follow standards laid out in the National Electrical Safety
Code and National Electrical Code.
DOE suggested that corrosion caused the failure of some guy
wire anchor rods, which add stability to poles. The department suggests more
aggressive maintenance of these structures and consideration of stronger
materials and wood alternatives for both transmission and distribution poles
that can withstand 150-mile-per-hour winds.
Authors proposed using roads built to rewire areas of the
island’s mountainous middle for more aggressive vegetation management, which in
some instances could ease trees taking out lines. They also recommended moving
all substations to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 0.2 percent flood
elevation level, areas that would only be reached in a 500-year flood, which is
something of a moving target because of climate change.
The report also suggested the island’s electric commission
(PREC) and PREPA work together on microgrid
regulations.
Moving forward, Puerto Rico will likely need less generation
than its current levels in part because of the great number of Puerto Ricans
who have left the island — estimated at 100,000 since the hurricanes. Looking
ahead to 2026, PREPA has estimated it will need 1,500 megawatts of average load
and 2,250 megawatts of peak load. Current capacity is over 5,000
megawatts.
Currently, over 90 percent of Puerto Rico’s capacity
generation comes from oil, much like many island systems. If the island
transitions away from its current fuel mix, it could save about 10 percent on
fuel and its levelized cost of electricity. The island also has among the
highest electricity costs in the nation.
While the department recognizes that some of this capacity
can be replaced with energy efficiency programs and demand response
initiatives, DOE also recommends replacing generation with plentiful U.S.
natural gas. Because the island only has one gas import terminal, though, this
would require building out capacity at that location and building another
terminal.
The Jones
Act, which requires that ships traveling between U.S. ports be U.S.-built
and crewed, restricts this option. There are currently no compliant ships
available to deliver large amounts of liquid natural gas to Puerto Rico.
According to DOE, a shipyard in the U.S. may not be able to build that vessel
until the mid-2020s, but freight containers could manage smaller
shipments.
That leaves the island with another option, one favored by
many of the companies that converged on the island in the wake of the storms
and by many academics on the island: renewables.
Puerto Rico has a legal requirement to get 20 percent of
electricity sales from clean energy by 2035, requiring about 1,200 megawatts in
capacity. In 2015, its integrated resource plan process estimated the grid
would include 322 megawatts of distributed solar by 2035, and this number
likely increased with the interest in solar and off-grid
systems post-Maria.
A recent study from the National Renewal Energy Laboratory
found that clean energy integrated into PREPA’s system, using its existing
infrastructure, could outperform “traditional operational practices.” The solar
already in operation in Puerto Rico provides lower-cost electricity than all of
PREPA’s generating stations, and prices will continue to decline.
DOE noted that energy storage, in addition to supporting
intermittency of renewables, can also help black-start natural gas turbines.
The department also recognized the wealth of expert
resources on the island, citing a group of academics working under the
Instituto Nacional de Energía y Sostenibilidad Isleña (INESI).
“INESI could provide the foundation on which to firmly
establish Puerto Rico as a Center of Excellence on distributed grid operations,
and could provide both the supply of interdisciplinary engineers and
policymakers Puerto Rico will need and the expertise other island and remote
grid systems will need in their transition to a distributed, resilient
electricity sector,” read the report.
INESI is hosting a workshop starting this week to bring
together universities, community groups and municipalities to work on a
resilience platform for future climate related events and their impact on
Puerto Rico’s electric system. Several academics in the group have criticized
the response to the hurricanes and the lack of effort to engage local experts,
including by the federal government.
Alongside these long-range plans, DOE proposed a handful of
immediate actions including updating mutual aid agreements to prepare for
future storms and prioritizing replacement of transmission towers installed for
emergency power restoration. On June 18 the island’s electric authority said
99.7 percent of customers had been energized and on June 19 generation reached
about 95 percent.
Ultimately, a great deal of investment is needed to repair
the $65 billion to $115 billion in damages that the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration estimates Hurricanes Maria and Irma caused. To that
end, Governor Ricardo Rosselló continues to push for PREPA’s privatization.
But the report “recognizes that capital investment alone
will likely be insufficient to achieve Puerto Rico’s goal of an electric sector
that is technically reliable, resilient and affordable.”
Instead, it notes that “success ultimately depends on the
leadership and commitment of the Government of Puerto Rico and entities such as
PREC and PREPA to carefully identify Puerto Rico’s electricity needs, assess
the options, and make their own determination of a strategy that meets
long-term goals and instills confidence for existing and new industries to
invest on the island.”
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