(Friday, March 31, 2023 – Washington, D.C.) – Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro R. Pierluisi, announced today that because of a new grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Puerto Rico Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) submitted the plan for the use of $3.7 million that will be available for five years under the Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Grants.
"Our administration will contribute $1.7 million as part of the required matching, and the use of the funds is destined for the development of community microgrids. We have already identified organizations and entities in different parts of the Island, including our mountain area, that have projects already underway and need financial support to complete the next steps to complete the development of the microgrids," said Governor Pierluisi, accompanied by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Deputy Administrator for Response and Recovery
Keith Turi.
For his part, the Executive Director of COR3, Manuel Laboy Rivera, indicated that "in compliance with the public policy of Governor Pedro Pierluisi, at COR3, we are committed to promoting mitigation projects that facilitate the communities to develop energy resilience systems. Through this request we have submitted, we provide the initial tools that set the path to the execution of efforts to establish microgrids that are a replicable example in other municipalities in the central mountain range of the Island. In addition, we support the economic development of the mountain region with the use of advanced technologies".
On the other hand, and in contrast to the announcement made during the State of the State Address regarding FEMA's approval of the microgrid project for Vieques and Culebra, Pierluisi informed that the system will consist of 12.5 megawatts on Vieques and three megawatts on Culebra. This will provide both municipalities with a reliable, clean, and resilient electrical system that will give reliable service to the residents of both island municipalities.
"This project is a great achievement for our people in the island municipalities because it will give them the resilience they need, and at the same time turn them into a model of renewable energy communities. The Vieques and Culebra microgrids will involve the modernization of existing generation, improvements to the energy transmission and distribution infrastructure, and the construction of two photovoltaic microgrids with battery systems to provide all the electricity the Islands need," the Governor reiterated at the press conference, which was attended by the mayor of Culebra, Edilberto Romero, as well as other government officials.
On the other hand, and as part of the commitment to the people of Vieques and Culebra, a Collaborative Agreement was announced between the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC, per its Spanish acronym) and the mayors to develop a short- and long-term project that seeks to promote the use of electric vehicles on the Islands.
"This initiative is possible thanks to Department of Energy funds managed by the DDEC's Energy Public Policy Office with an investment of $300,000. Two public charging stations will be developed, and an electric vehicle will be provided to each municipality. The development of the two charging stations will be overseen by the Remcoop energy cooperative, which will also operate the stations once they are up and running, which should happen within the next six months," the Governor added.
The use of the vehicles by the municipal administrations will benefit the residents of each town because they will be used to provide services to the citizens, such as transportation to medical appointments, among others. With the allocated budget, recharging will be provided free of charge for an initial period and subsequently the cost of recharging will be part of Remcoop's operation.
"As you can see, these are important energy resiliency initiatives that support our transformation to renewable energy, both in Vieques and Culebra and for the rest of our communities that will benefit from the microgrids that are being developed and that we are supporting," Pierluisi said.
For FEMA's Deputy Administrator for Response and Recovery, rebuilding Puerto Rico's energy grid "remains one of FEMA's top priorities, and we will continue to work closely with our partners at the federal and local levels, including the Government of Puerto Rico and the Department of Energy, to maximize this historic opportunity. As the recovery progresses, we are taking steps to advance equity and climate adaptation as part of our long-term recovery efforts on the Island. We are committed to helping Puerto Rico achieve resilient outcomes that will be felt for generations to come."
This is part of the result of what has been executed after Secretary Granholm's last visit to the Island, which took place in January of this year. At that time, the Governor reiterated that Puerto Rico is on track to achieve the goals of energy generation through renewable sources and that his administration is committed to incorporating solar energy technologies, storage and virtual power plants, as well as additional solutions to continue the transition to a system that does not depend on fossil fuels.
Precisely at that time, Pierluisi, together with the DOE Secretary, announced that the Department of Housing and the Puerto Rico Medical Services Administration (ASEM), signed a Collaborative Agreement to build an electric microgrid for the Rio Piedras Medical Center. Puerto Rico is on track to have over 2,000 megawatts of additional generation capacity based on large-scale solar energy projects, and the creation of microgrids is being promoted.
Additionally, FEMA announced the arrival of the first electric generators that will provide approximately 150 megawatts of additional electric power to help stabilize the grid during the hurricane season, which will be installed at the Palo Seco Thermoelectric Plant. In addition, with an investment of $100 million in CDBG-MIT funds, a voucher program will be created for middle-class families to receive incentives for the purchase of solar energy systems, and a solar panel voucher program for low-income individuals and families was also announced.
