Freeport wins prize to develop Microgrid

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last week that Freeport was one of 14 Long Island municipalities to be awarded a grant to help develop resilient and clean energy.

The grant, part of a competition called NY Prize and the governor’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative to develop more clean and reliable energy, is one of 83 that was awarded to municipalities across the state. The approximately $100,000 prize will be used for an engineering study of how the village can add power generation capability and develop a community microgrid — an independent energy-generation system that can help in the event of large-scale power outages. In addition to offering energy independence during power outages, microgrids can benefit utilities on days of high power demand by reducing the amount of energy drawn from the main grid — and providing additional power when needed.

A microgrid consists of nothing more than some switch gears set in a small building. It does not generate its own power, but rather sends the power of a main plant out to the community.

Other Long Island communities that won grant money included the City of Long Beach, the Town of Hempstead and the villages of East Rockaway and Rockville Centre.

“New Yorkers have firsthand experience regarding the need for resilient and efficient power systems that can withstand whatever Mother Nature has in store for us,” Cuomo said in a release. “This funding will help communities across New York invest in these new systems, which will ensure critically important institutions such as police and fire stations, hospitals and schools can continue operating during and in the aftermath of an extreme weather event.”

Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy said the microgrid would help “provide a reliable back up power source capable of providing the necessary electric to all emergency services and facilities in Freeport.” For example, the design would help to provide power to gas stations, emergency management, police, DPW, the fire department and communication antennas.

Under its proposal the microgrid would help keep Freeport Electric ahead of the curve and help create a system to “store power from wind, solar and co-generaiton for years to come,” Kennedy said.

After Hurricane Sandy, power was restored in the village much more quickly than in the surrounding communities, which at the time were serviced by the Long Island Power Authority. Many area residents came to Freeport to eat and charge their electronic devices.

Though power was restored quickly, the microgrid system would allow the village to keep supplying power to key places in the event of a blackout while it works to restore power to other parts of the community.

The grant the village won is the first stage of the competition, for feasibility studies. Once the study is complete, the village can enter a second round of competition, in which up to $1 million will be awarded to 10 projects to help fund a detailed microgrid design. In the third round, the building stage, up to $7 million will be awarded to five different projects.

Alex Costello and Mary Malloy contributed to this story.