A Midwest derecho and Hurricane Sandy prompt the state to develop energy resilience programs.
Maryland is preparing to be more energy resilient for when a future storm knocks out the power grid. (AP Images)
In June 2012, the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho, a severe and fast-moving thunderstorm, moved through Maryland and left more than 1 million households without power in hot, humid conditions for up to a week in some places.
Although some changes were quickly made in response, Hurricane Sandy came quick on the derecho’s heels and knocked out power again. These two events triggered Maryland to focus on its energy resilience, prompting new programs, including backup generator initiatives and requirements, and a move toward microgrids to make the state more resilient.
One of the state’s new energy resilience programs, which ended this summer, was a grant to gas stations to purchase backup generators so that fuels are available when power is down. The Fuel Up Maryland program offered grants up to $25,000 per gas station to offset 70 percent of the purchasing and pre-wire costs of backup power generation.
The state narrowly escaped Hurricane Sandy’s worst effects, though its neighbor, New Jersey, experienced severe fuel shortages and hours-long waits at gas stations, according to Abigail Hopper, director of the Maryland Energy Administration, who replied by email. “The Fuel Up Maryland program is designed to prevent this type of scenario by ensuring that gas stations have electricity to power their pumps.”
Although some changes were quickly made in response, Hurricane Sandy came quick on the derecho’s heels and knocked out power again. These two events triggered Maryland to focus on its energy resilience, prompting new programs, including backup generator initiatives and requirements, and a move toward microgrids to make the state more resilient.
One of the state’s new energy resilience programs, which ended this summer, was a grant to gas stations to purchase backup generators so that fuels are available when power is down. The Fuel Up Maryland program offered grants up to $25,000 per gas station to offset 70 percent of the purchasing and pre-wire costs of backup power generation.
The state narrowly escaped Hurricane Sandy’s worst effects, though its neighbor, New Jersey, experienced severe fuel shortages and hours-long waits at gas stations, according to Abigail Hopper, director of the Maryland Energy Administration, who replied by email. “The Fuel Up Maryland program is designed to prevent this type of scenario by ensuring that gas stations have electricity to power their pumps.”
Keeping Schools Running
In addition to providing incentives for generator purchases, the state now requires new schools and those under construction to install generators to enable the schools themselves to be sheltering places. Although the requirement has been in the works for several years, it went into effect this year.
“[The requirement] does things for our sheltering, but at the same time it’s a resilience program because it would allow schools to get back up and running as schools in the event of a loss of power,” said Brendan McCluskey, preparedness director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).
Under the state’s Emergency Shelter Compliance Process, new schools or those undergoing significant renovations are required to install either a generator or transfer switch to accommodate a portable generator, with schools being allowed to decide how to comply.
Although most schools have generators to keep elevators and fire detection systems running, those generators aren’t enough to keep a large space humming for days, as is required in a mass sheltering environment, said David Lever, executive director of the Maryland Public School Construction Program.
Cost has been a concern throughout the process since there is no dedicated funding stream for the requirement. However, most schools are on board now, Lever said, realizing the potential benefits of having a generator, and much of the work happens within the context of existing state-funded projects, including the Capital Improvement Program, which funds about $500 million in projects every year.
The Interagency Committee on School Construction approved the final procedures in the spring, which were developed collaboratively with MEMA and the Maryland Department of Human Resources.
Keeping Track of Generators
In addition to its requirements and incentives to get generators in place before the next disaster, Maryland has a program to collect location data and other specifics regarding its generator fleet.
This program is especially helpful as an inventory of the state’s portable generators to bring power to critical infrastructures during outages, McCluskey said. For example, this knowledge helped the state bring power to pumping stations after a 2014 snowstorm. “We were able to go in and locate a generator that was within a short distance that had all the attributes we needed to power those water stations temporarily,” he said.
And to solve previous issues of inconsistent data collection, the state is looking to move from Excel and go forward with a Web-based tool from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, called the Emergency Power Facility Assessment Tool, or EPFAT.
The tool offers a permanent repository for generator information and meets the state’s requirements, including the ability to integrate with its Web-mapping application.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers collaborated with federal, state and local entities and the private sector to create EPFAT to expedite the installation of generators after a disaster. EPFAT allows emergency managers to review information that is owned by users. And it speeds the time-taking process of assessing both impact to critical facilities and availability of generators to match facility needs, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“It’s really a way for us to keep all the information in a single location that has all the fields we need,” McCluskey said. “And it’s secure and online.”
Resilience Through Microgrids
Even as the state works to promote resilience via generators, it is pursuing the idea of microgrids to power public facilities during a disaster. A microgrid is a small-scale power grid that can operate in conjunction with a local electrical system. The microgrids would remain in operation even when the wider grid is down, providing more resilience in the future. “Specific communities or areas of Maryland would have the ability to come up on a microgrid where they are powering that small area and can operate independent of the larger power grid,” McCluskey said.
Although the state has microgrids that serve single buildings or university campuses, there was a question about whether Maryland could legally power multiple facilities through microgrids.
Because these public-purpose microgrids serve critical community assets — like grocery stores and gas stations — across property lines, there was a question of whether they would encroach on the legal franchises of existing utilities, Hopper said. This issue exists on the national level as well.
To better understand this topic, Gov. Martin O’Malley directed Hopper in February to lead a task force, which brought together experts from across the U.S. and representatives from sister states who explored statutory, regulatory and other barriers to deployment of microgrids in Maryland, and to develop a “road map for action.”
According to the task force’s report, released in June, public purpose microgrids can be deployed by existing utilities, but not yet by third parties unless there is a change to law.
Hopper said this provides an excellent opportunity to test the concept of a public-purpose microgrid in the short term, providing benefits to residents in the shortest possible timeframe. The task force has proposed that the Maryland Public Service Commission begin accepting applications from utilities for microgrid project pre-approval.
In the long term, the task force recommends the state address legal barriers to third-party operation of public-purpose microgrids, though this would be limited in scope, said Hopper. Other Eastern Seaboard states have joined the microgrid movement, including New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, each pursuing its own microgrid initiative.
Resilient Maryland
MEMA is also making its own operations increasingly energy resilient by having more power company representation when it activates the state EOC, and by getting direct feeds from power companies into its GIS.
The governor has also led initiatives to harden the electric grid, increasing Maryland’s ability to withstand major storms, Hopper said.
According to McCluskey, the state has made strides toward resilience, but the word has different meanings depending on the person or circumstance.
“We’ve focused on a number of things, from citizen preparedness, to improving our plans and systems, to partnering with the private sector and power companies,” said McCluskey. “We still have a ways to go.”
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