TDX to Power St. Paul Island with 80 percent renewable energy Village Corporation subsidiary moving closer to 'ambitious' 2020 goal.

AuthorWallis, Kailee
PositionENERGY

Tanadgusix Power (TDX), a subsidiary of the village corporation Tanadgusix Corporation, has made a confident statement--St. Paul Island will be fueled by 80 percent renewable energy by 2020.

St. Paul Island is located off the southwest coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. Grouped by four other small volcanic islands known as the Pribilofs, St. Paul is the only residential area on the island, with a population of 484 people, according to the latest US Census data.

TDX has been operating on the island since 1999, when it designed and developed a hybrid wind-diesel power plant to reduce local energy costs. Now, sixteen years later, the company has a total of six 225-kilowatt wind turbines on the island and hopes to add turbines and a microgrid to assist in its 2020 goal.

Windy Challenges

One of the largest problems communities have with renewable energy is the unreliable control of the source (wind or solar) and making stable energy with few power outages. Wind power can ramp up and down quickly, and often is not in sync with the ups and downs of the demands of the grid. TDX Power found a simple solution to this problem--renewable combined heat and power. With renewable combined heat and power, during peak hours excess energy is stored in fast-acting dispatchable loads--in the form of heat. These dispatchable loads alleviate the changes while addressing the need for grid management. This essential solution comes in the form of microgrid technology. Microgrids are sections of the utility that can be disconnected from the utility (in this case, the turbines) and still maintain power.

Recently, TDX Power was awarded $1.5 million from the US Department of Energy to be a part of the seven companies that are doing studies of the microgrid and demonstrate its functionality and necessity to large renewable utilities. St. Paul Island has been chosen to be the site for the demonstration. This project will bring valuable insights into the capability of the current utility, according to TDX.

Kord Christianson, TDX Power president, says, "Renewables are very sporadic on what their output levels are. So we make the load match what the renewable generation is." In other words, thermal storage that can be used by residents and commercial customers alike on St. Paul Island.

Alaska Energy Authority's Emerging Energy Technology Fund has provided TDX Power the money to install a flywheel that has technology capable of storing electrical energy generated by the wind...

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