Tigard Microgrid Feasibility Study

Ada Inman — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 21:39:33 +0000

The information presented in this report was collected through interviews with significant stakeholders from the City of Tigard, Portland General Electric (PGE), real estate developers, business owners, and specialists from the Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO). The University of Oregon, in partnership with the City of Tigard, has synthesized this information to build a feasibility study for the deployment of solar microgrids in the city. This project seeks to answer the fundamental question: How can Tigard deploy microgrids using distributed renewable energy generation and battery storage at both the building and district scale to provide equity, resiliency, economic, and sustainability benefits to the public, local businesses, the city, and the utility company and its grid? Across the world, renewable resources are being deployed at ever increasing rates to replace fossil fuel generation sources in the race to achieve net‐zero carbon emissions. This adoption has been encouraged in the United States by a rapid decrease in technology costs and favorable policies at the federal and state levels. Solar power’s low cost, limited maintenance demands, and infinitely renewable energy source make it a perfect solution for building resilience in preparation for emergencies. Tigard and the rest of the Pacific Northwest are under the constant threat of wildfires and face the possibility of a massive Cascadia earthquake, which was famously reported on by The New Yorker magazine in 2015 (1). To prepare for this possibility, Tigard is exploring the case for creating a single user microgrid (SUM) that would provide energy to the public library, which will serve as the emergency operations center in times of need. In an effort to achieve Tigard’s sustainability objectives and transform the city into a clean energy leader in Oregon, the team is also exploring the expansion of this microgrid to include the Hunziker Core, a light industrial and manufacturing district located just north of the library. The core is dominated by warehouses and large commercial buildings with vast surface parking lots that provide opportunity for rooftop and ground mounted canopy solar. The district scale application of microgrid technology creates benefits for the grid, the utility, the owner of the generating assets, the City, and local businesses, particularly those that value resilient power. This multi‐user microgrid (MUM) is, however, the most complex system to fund and manage because of the potential number of generating facilities, owners, and user profiles. The implementation of the district scale MUM could be facilitated by the City’s enthusiastic endorsement and extensive cooperation from the utility, PGE.

City of Tigard: Funding Options for Park Maintenance

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:36:06 +0000

In November 2010, voters in the City of Tigard passed a $17 million bond to
fund parks acquisition and development. The bond, Measure 34-181, did not fund
park maintenance, however, and the City of Tigard now needs to identify further
funding mechanisms to support ongoing park maintenance.
Many other cities in Oregon are also looking for ways to fund park
maintenance, as well as looking for other sources of revenue in general, whether to
balance the general budget or fund a specific area, such as public safety. In fact,
the 2014 League of Oregon Cities conference included a session titled “Creative
Revenue Streams for Municipalities.”

Sustainable City Year Program Contact Info
Megan Banks
Sustainable City Year Program Manager
mbanks@uoregon.edu
(541) 346-6395

University Faculty Contact
Michael Reeder
Law

mreeder@arnoldgallagher.com

Local Government / Community Contact
Kent Wyatt

Senior Management Analyst

City of Tigard – �鶹��Ƶ

Tigard Microgrid Feasibility Study

City of Tigard: Funding Options for Park Maintenance