The city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, broke ground early this month on the first phase of its virtual microgrid, an effort that invites other towns and cities to follow its example and reap energy justice, environmental and resilience benefits, along with income.

To date, the Massachusetts towns of Cambridge, Lynn, Milton and Salem and the Boston neighborhood of Chinatown have committed to the concept of deploying virtual microgrids, said David Dayton, CEO of Clean Energy Solutions, a consultant to the project.

These and other towns and municipalities could, like Chelsea, create virtual microgrids that can add distributed energy resources via cloud-based software, as opposed to poles and wires.

The long-term hope is to link the microgrids in a shared network, Dayton said.

The virtual nature of the microgrid means that towns can circumvent utility restrictions that often make it difficult to include utility poles and wires in microgrid projects.

On Dec. 2, Chelsea began installing 1,000 kW of solar on its Municipal Public Works Yard building. Next, the city will deploy 1,000 kWh of batteries for the police station and city hall, said Sari Kayyali, microgrid manager for GreenRoots, an environmental justice organization.

Para leer más ingrese a: