Hualapai Indian Tribe: Photo voltaic-Plus-Storage Equals Financial savings of $450,000 Per 12 months At Grand Canyon West :

Tribal Vitality Snapshot: Hualapai Indian Tribe

On this tribal power snapshot, study extra in regards to the Hualapai Indian Tribe’s Constructing Resiliency into the Grand Canyon West Microgrid mission. The mission was co-funded by the U.S. Division of Vitality’s Workplace of Indian Vitality.

Undertaking Fast Information

As the house of the world-famous Grand Canyon Skywalk, Grand Canyon West (GCW) is the first financial engine that helps the Hualapai Indian Tribe, attracting greater than 1 million vacationers yearly. To enhance the resilience of the distant, “islanded” (non-interconnected) GCW electrical technology system, the Tribe put in a photo voltaic photovoltaic array and battery system to boost the system’s skill to face up to short-term outages and rising power prices. The solar-plus-storage system is able to offering 50% of the annual power wanted at GCW to complement the prevailing diesel mills and is predicted to save lots of the Tribe greater than $450,000 per 12 months in power and upkeep prices.

Take a look on the mission by the numbers:

Whole power technology

The system is able to producing roughly 1,600 megawatt-hours per 12 months, sufficient electrical energy to provide 150 common American houses for one 12 months.

Financial savings to the Tribe

The price financial savings for the Tribe is roughly $450,000 per 12 months, or $11 million over the 25-year lifetime of the system.

Insights from the Undertaking Staff

Kevin Davidson, Planning Director with the Hualapai Indian Tribe. Picture: U.S. Division of Vitality’s Workplace of Indian Vitality.

Be taught from Kevin Davidson, Planning Director with the Hualapai Indian Tribe, on his expertise with the mission.

Why did the Tribe initially pursue this clear power mission? Was there a particular occasion or concern that sparked the necessity?

We first started working — and are nonetheless working — on an influence line to Grand Canyon West. However by 2019 the Tribal Utility Authority Board stated, “You already know, that is taking fairly a bit to get this energy line authorised via the Bureau of Land Administration. Let’s deal with photo voltaic. All the pieces goes inexperienced.” We figured with a photo voltaic grant we might cut back our value to perhaps $0.20 a kilowatt from a present $0.40 with diesel.

What has been the most important “lesson discovered” from the mission?

Integration of the battery system and the present generator units. Ensure that your communications are appropriate up-front. Know your contractor and power supplier can really work collectively. You’ll be able to plug in a photo voltaic array at your home together with your incumbent energy supplier identical to that. Right here now we have a system that’s making as a lot energy because the diesel mills, so the 2 need to be in parity. How they’ll work collectively must be ironed out.

Workplace of Indian Vitality Director Wahleah Johns examines the newly put in battery power storage system at an Aug. 30 occasion at Grand Canyon West celebrating the Hualapai Tribe’s solar-plus-storage microgrid enchancment and a multi-million-dollar tribal water-rights settlement. Picture: U.S. Division of Vitality’s Workplace of Indian Vitality.

How will the Tribe profit from the mission when it’s absolutely operational?

The discount of gasoline prices and upkeep. We’re saving perhaps $1 million a 12 months on that alone. The photo voltaic with a 750-kilowatt-hour battery may also help us lower the load by 50% on the diesel mills and save a number of hundred thousand a 12 months in gasoline prices. The mills have been on-line since 2015, and we spend a number of hundred thousand {dollars} a 12 months in upkeep. And the photo voltaic arrays will flip them right into a backup generator.

Be taught Extra

Be taught extra about this mission, together with further background info, value, and standing on the mission abstract web page.

Discover extra tribal power tasks via the tribal power tasks database.

Article courtesy of Workplace of Indian Vitality Coverage and Packages.