| Resource Type | Report |
| Author / Source | Wilson Rickerson, Kiera Zitelman, Kelsey Jones (Converge Strategies, NARUC, NASEO) |
| Publication Date | February 2022 |
| Location | United States |
| Initiative Type | Policy, Technology, Program |
| Project Complexity | Intermediate |
| Recommended For | Board, Staff |
Estimated reading time: 30+ minutes
Why This Matters for Rural Electric Co-ops
Microgrids can be hard to justify when their biggest benefit, keeping power on during a long outage, has no agreed dollar value. This report explains why regulators have been hesitant to approve resilience projects when benefits stay unquantified. It then reviews the tools being built to close that gap.
For a co-op weighing a microgrid at a critical facility, the report outlines tools that can help put numbers behind a resilience case. These include outage cost calculators, FEMA benefit values, and methods that measure how hard it is for residents to reach critical services during an outage. It also highlights state grant programs that factor resilience into scoring or benefit-cost analysis. A co-op can use it to compare valuation methods before building a case for funders or partners.
Key Takeaways
| › | No single resilience valuation method is widely accepted, so current tools each capture only part of the benefit. |
| › | The ICE Calculator is the industry standard but only covers outages of 24 hours or less, which understates value for long outages. |
| › | FEMA's Benefit-Cost Analysis Toolkit assigns pre-calculated values for lost emergency services, useful for co-ops serving hospitals, fire stations, or police stations. |
| › | Where resilience is not quantified, a few pilots have been approved based on other benefits such as peak demand savings and frequency regulation, though regulators urged caution. |
Implementation Considerations
- Regulatory or Governance Considerations: The report focuses on state PUCs and investor-owned utilities. Many co-ops are not rate-regulated the same way, so boards will need to decide how resilience value fits their own investment criteria.
- Staffing or Technology Requirements: Applying these methods takes analytical skill and site-specific data. Smaller co-ops may need consultant support, statewide association help, or partnerships with national labs.
- Time-Sensitive Information: Tool timelines in the report are outdated. The POET and ICE Calculator updates have since been released, so check current versions before relying on the report's descriptions. The CDF Calculator is from NREL/NLR (U.S. Department of Energy). IIJA State Energy Program funding and state grant program details may have changed.
Notable Examples
- Nolin RECC: First electric co-op in the nation to earn PEER certification, including a campus-level rating tied partly to its combined heat and power microgrid at Fort Knox.
- NYSERDA: NY Prize combined ICE Calculator and FEMA values to estimate resilience benefits for 83 community microgrid feasibility studies.
- ComEd and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: The Bronzeville Community Microgrid and the Power Outage Economics Tool (POET), which estimates costs of long, widespread outages.
- Sandia National Laboratories and University at Buffalo: The Social Burden method, used to site microgrids in Puerto Rico based on community needs.
- Xcel Energy (Wisconsin): Resiliency Service Pilot, now the EMPOWER Resiliency program, where participating customers pay for utility-owned backup assets.
Estimated reading time: 30+ minutes
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