Petaluma City Schools Microgrid
With climate change exacerbating the wildfire situation in California, resulting in widespread power outages, it is a critical time for schools to prepare themselves for outages and to hedge against electricity rate increases.
Recently, utility power outages and wildfires in the region have threatened the Petaluma School District’s ability to provide quality and consistent education.
Petaluma City Schools have partnered with Scale Microgrids to design and build multiple microgrids that will provide over two full days of backup power that is 100% renewable, while maximizing funding from Cailifornia’s Self- Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), optimizing savings generated from the microgrid.
The Petaluma School District consists of:
Students
Members of Staff
School Buildings
Microgrid at Petaluma
The microgrids will include 4.2 MWh of a battery energy storage, a microgrid controller, and 831kW of existing solar PV. Scale will utilize state-of-the-art lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are attractive because they’re not dependent on scarce and controversial raw materials like cobalt and nickel.
831 kW
Solar PV
4.2 MWh
Battery Energy Storage
Matthew Harris, Superintendent of Petaluma City Schools says,
“We are really excited to be on the forefront of this creative and environmentally friendly method of providing backup power to our schools.
With so much uncertainty and disruption over these past years, microgrid systems can provide much needed continuity for our students when there is a power disruption.
This project also gives us an opportunity to put our values into action because it is aligned to one of our recently adopted District goals, which is to enhance the long-term sustainability of our organization, infrastructure, and operations.”