As Vermont works toward energy independence it's wonderful to see the utilities participating by upgrading their infrastructure in a forward thinking manor. As this article states "GMP is believed to the be first utility in the country to island a distribution circuit using inverter-based sources with no reliance on fossil fuel generation backup." Wow!
Green Mountain Power announced in late February that they are taking their existing 4.9 MW solar array and utility scale batteries and are transitioning it into a microgrid for 50 Panton residents! See the full article here. The plan is to expand the covered area to eventually include 900 customers.
This project increases the likelihood that the residents connected to the microgrid will still have power if there is an outage and help to reduce the burden of peak energy demand.
This is a great reminder that to work toward being a renewable energy state it takes a whole team, including utilities, homeowners and businesses. With all hands on deck and projects like this in the works, Vermont is on its way to energy independence.