Photo Credit: Connecticut Green Bank
October 19, 2021 – The Clinic is supporting efforts by the Post Road Foundation and its collaborators who have recently been awarded a grant to integrate distributed energy resources under the Department of Energy’s recently announced Connected Communities Program. Post Road, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Efficiency Maine Trust, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, and Knowledge Problem LLC will receive $6.65 million in federal funding to evaluate the ability of transactive energy, a novel, smart grid technology enabled by reliable, high-speed internet access, to meet the future energy needs of rural and urban communities across the U.S. The evaluation will be conducted by deploying a particular version of transactive energy, TESS, to three “Connected Communities” in Maine and New Hampshire and by observing their operations and performance over a multi-year period. The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic is providing pro-bono support on regulatory considerations associated with transactive energy.
The team expects that the five-year project will demonstrate that transactive energy can (i) enable more effective electricity distribution systems by increasing load flexibility, with applications such as the ability to manage peak demand and coordinate greater use of alternative energy, such as wind and solar power; (ii) demonstrate the financial value to the electricity distribution system of deploying distributed energy resources; and (iii) lower financial and engineering hurdles to beneficial electrification— replacing fossil-fuel-powered heating and transportation with lower cost heat-pumps and electric vehicles. These benefits will help consumers lower electricity, heating and cooling costs, facilitate the deployment of solar panels, wind turbines and distributed energy resources, and help communities nation-wide meet their sustainability, reliability and environmental goals. The team hopes that if the project is successful, it will position transactive energy to scale nation-wide to help all communities meet their energy needs.
Please click here to view copies of the Post Road Foundation and Department of Energy press releases:
www.postroadfoundation.org/news