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Adaptable Microgrids in Arctic Communities
Arctic communities facing extreme climate stress, including possible future relocation, may benefit from innovations in utility infrastructure design. The quest to build infrastructure that suits both the community it serves and its environment has spurred proactive philosophies of engineering design, including “flexibility in design” and “designing for values”. These philosophies avoid the construction of “institutional relics” that constrain communities’ patterns of behavior. Avoiding these constraints is especially important as climate change demands rapid transitions in either engineering systems or human behavior. However, existing approaches to engineering design often lack the capacity to incorporate long-term uncertainties. Recognizing the critical reliance of infrastructure systems on electricity, this project focuses on the design of resilient community microgrids that could facilitate a broad range of other critical services—like telecommunications and public health.
This planning project aims to build research relationships to study the possibilities of building modular, microgrid electric systems in rural Alaska. An Advisory Committee consisting of Alaska rural energy experts, including electric utilities, Alaska Native associations, government and non-profit organizations, guided relationship building with research partners. The research team also conducted site visits in Norton Sound and Yukon Delta area communities to strengthen collaborations.
The future research project will work to understand how at-risk communities use energy and to co-develop energy system models for building adaptable microgrid systems in Alaska.
For any questions, or expressions of interest in partnership opportunities, please contact PI Kristen Schell (schelk@rpi.edu).
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