The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) annual meeting, held in Nashville, Tennessee, drew more than 9000 attendees from co-ops across the United States. New Sun Road’s Robin Milshtein made the trip to Music City and shared the following highlights.
Rural Electric Co-ops Leverage Microgrids for Improved Resiliency
- Co-op leaders were busy strategizing on how to best leverage the federal funding opportunities authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The US Department of Energy will be investing $1 billion in energy improvements to rural and remote areas with populations of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
- With the increasing threat of weather and climate-related events, co-ops are focused on improving resilience and reliability for their members.
- Technologies such as energy storage and microgrids will be critical as co-ops continue to adopt renewables.
- Co-ops are leveraging microgrids to improve resilience, reduce carbon footprint, and manage demand response.
- NRECA Research has formed a Microgrid Consortium to partner with federal, state, and local stakeholders to accelerate advanced microgrid deployment. Learn more at: https://www.electric.coop/microgrid-consortium
