Green Mountain Power has just filed a proposal with the state of Vermont that it says could eliminate power outages for all 270,000 of its customers by 2030. The plan is to put many of its power lines underground where they are safe from falling trees and branches, strengthen the lines that have to remain above ground so they can better resist powerful winds and heavier snowfalls, and install a residential storage battery in the home of every residential customer.
You may not think of Vermont as being particularly vulnerable to changes in the environment. It has no coastline threatened by sea level rise and has never been a place where people worried too much about hurricanes. That changed a decade ago when Vermont was devastated by extreme flooding that ripped through many of its cities and towns, many of which are located next to rivers because that’s where the power to run mills came from originally.
she said that while batteries are not cheap, the cost of repair and maintenance to keep the grid operational is increasing all the time, partly because of climate change — something that many other utility company executives are loath to talk about. “This is a full out plan to look at the extreme weather right in its face and tackle it,” she said.her Ford F-150 Lightning kept her home functioning for five days when the temperature outside was 5º F. “This is something we know works now.
I asked Jock if it wouldn’t make more sense for Green Mountain Power to invest in grid-scale storage instead of individual batteries. “Having your own batteries and PV gives you much more flexibility as you have power on site. A big battery might not support your house or might be drained by other users. Decentralization, internet style, is always a better design for resilience and energy security. PV without batteries is of no use in an outage.