Decentralization of Electricity Grid Leading to ‘Personal Power Plants’
FORT COLLINS, Colo.—A medium-sized city north of Denver is ground zero for one of the most ambitious energy agendas of any municipality in the United States. Fort Collins, Colo., population 150,000, is trying to do something that no other community of its size has ever done: transform its downtown into a net zero energy district, meaning it will consume no more energy in a given year than it generates. And the city as a whole is aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% by 2030. To make that happen, engineers are preparing to deploy an array of advanced energy technologies, including combined-cycle gas turbines to replace aging coal-fired plants, as well as rooftop solar photovoltaics, solar gardens, wind turbines, thermal and electricity storage, and microgrids. The local utility, like utilities all over the world, is dealing with the dissolution of the traditional regulated-monopoly model of electricity production. An article in engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum cites Fort Collins as one case study of a growing trend of decentralizing the electricity grid, enabling businesses, factories, campuses, and households to provide their own electricity for much of the day and most of the year.