Tribal Vitality Snapshot: Hualapai Indian Tribe

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

Challenge 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 reinforce the system’s potential to face up to short-term outages and rising vitality prices. The solar-plus-storage system is able to offering 50% of the annual vitality wanted at GCW to complement the present diesel turbines and is predicted to save lots of the Tribe greater than $450,000 per yr in vitality and upkeep prices.

Take a look on the undertaking by the numbers:

Complete vitality technology

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

Financial savings to the Tribe

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

Insights from the Challenge Crew

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 undertaking.

Why did the Tribe initially pursue this clear vitality undertaking? 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, “, that is taking fairly a bit to get this energy line accredited via the Bureau of Land Administration. Let’s give attention to photo voltaic. All the things goes inexperienced.” We figured with a photo voltaic grant we might scale back our value to possibly $0.20 a kilowatt from a present $0.40 with diesel.

What has been the most important “lesson realized” from the undertaking?

Integration of the battery system and the present generator units. Be certain your communications are appropriate up-front. Know your contractor and vitality supplier can really work collectively. You may plug in a photo voltaic array at your home along with your incumbent energy supplier similar to that. Right here we’ve got a system that’s making as a lot energy because the diesel turbines, so the 2 should 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 vitality 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 undertaking when it’s totally operational?

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

Study Extra

Study extra about this undertaking, together with extra background data, value, and standing on the undertaking abstract web page.

Discover extra tribal vitality initiatives via the tribal vitality initiatives database.

Article courtesy of Workplace of Indian Vitality Coverage and Packages.