Dive Brief:

• In a broad proposal to prepare New York for extreme weather, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed creating at least 10 “microgrids” – independent community-based electric distributions systems – that can operate as "energy islands" during a power outage.
• Through a competition, Cuomo plans to offer $40 million towards the microgrids, which will be developed for communities with at least 40,000 people.
• Cuomo also proposed spending $1.4 billion to “harden” New York's grid system. The plan includes moving 500 miles of power lines underground, elevating vulnerable substations and trimming more trees.

Dive Insight:

Connecticut and New Jersey are also exploring and developing microgrids to protect themselves during major storms.

The New York State Smart Grid Consortium praised Cuomo's plan. Community-based microgrids “can be the means to increase reliability and give local communities more control of their energy systems while also allowing for the adoption of clean and efficient distributed energy sources such as solar or combined heat and power,” the group said. “It can also be the conduit for integration of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which has been another priority of the Cuomo Administration.”