Tribal Vitality Snapshot: Hualapai Indian Tribe

On this tribal power snapshot, be taught extra in regards to the Hualapai Indian Tribe’s Constructing Resiliency into the Grand Canyon West Microgrid challenge. The challenge 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 era system, the Tribe put in a photo voltaic photovoltaic array and battery system to reinforce 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 present diesel mills and is anticipated to avoid wasting the Tribe greater than $450,000 per 12 months in power and upkeep prices.

Take a look on the challenge by the numbers:

Complete power era

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

Financial savings to the Tribe

The associated fee 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.

Study from Kevin Davidson, Planning Director with the Hualapai Indian Tribe, on his expertise with the challenge.

Why did the Tribe initially pursue this clear power challenge? Was there a selected 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 realize, that is taking fairly a bit to get this energy line accepted by the Bureau of Land Administration. Let’s give attention to photo voltaic. All the pieces goes inexperienced.” We figured with a photo voltaic grant we may cut back our price to perhaps $0.20 a kilowatt from a present $0.40 with diesel.

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

Integration of the battery system and the present generator units. Be sure your communications are appropriate up-front. Know your contractor and power supplier can really work collectively. You possibly can plug in a photo voltaic array at your own home along with your incumbent energy supplier similar to that. Right here we’ve 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 needs to 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 challenge when it’s absolutely operational?

The discount of gas prices and upkeep. We’re taking a look at saving perhaps $1 million a 12 months on that alone. The photo voltaic with a 750-kilowatt-hour battery might help us reduce the load by 50% on the diesel mills and save a number of hundred thousand a 12 months in gas 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.

Study Extra

Study extra about this challenge, together with further background info, price, and standing on the challenge abstract web page.

Discover extra tribal power initiatives by the tribal power initiatives database.

Article courtesy of Workplace of Indian Vitality Coverage and Applications.