“We have a state-of-the-art, elite certified animal shelter and this was the next step in making it more resilient and sustainable,” said Michael Yambrach, Chief, Office of Energy and Sustainability, Montgomery County Department of General Services. “During any outages or weather events, we want our residents to know that animals under our care are safe and protected, and our critical operations for animal control are uninterrupted.”
GreenStruxure is a leading Energy as a Service company, delivering on-site, zero carbon, digital energy to help customers meet their sustainability and business continuity goals with no capital upfront, price certainty, and no operational risks. The company designed, built, operates, and maintains the on-site renewable energy microgrid through an energy services agreement with the county. Montgomery County receives the outcomes of the microgrid’s performance – notably, about 35% of the site's load is served by solar energy, and improves resilience at the critical facility by using solar power combined with backup generators to reduce fuel consumption and extend the operating time during utility power outages.
“While we would have never foreseen this type of scenario, we’re very proud to work with Montgomery County and to deliver for them in this first test,” said Jose Lorenzo, CEO, GreenStruxure. “The county has taken a real leadership role when it comes to sustainability and resilience. We’re confident GreenStruxure’s outcome-based, standardized, modular approach is uniquely positioned for sites such as this animal shelter.”
Montgomery County has been a national leader in responding to the challenge of climate change. The county is committed to sustainability leadership and improving resilience after experiencing first-hand the impact of extreme weather events and power outages. The county set goals in December 2017 to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2035. Under the leadership of County Executive Marc Elrich, the county developed an aggressive Climate Action Plan to achieve its GHG goals.
“We never know when a man-made or a natural disaster will happen to our electric grid, but, by building resiliency through innovative means and partnerships, we are prepared for when those moments occur,” said County Executive Elrich. “When a small plane crashed into high tension wires and knocked out power to tens of thousands of County residents, the animals and our employees who take care of them were able to seamlessly continue their operations because they were connected to the microgrid. This is exactly why we invest in these partnerships. They provide safety, sustainability, and resiliency to all who reside in Montgomery County - whether they have two legs or four.”
“This GreenStruxure microgrid project and our continued partnership with Montgomery County are more proof points of the way we see this market headed and how we work with like-minded organizations,” said Annette Clayton, CEO, of Schneider Electric North America. “With our innovative Energy as a Service approach, we offer more scalable solutions to accelerate the adoption of microgrids while delivering triple-bottom-line results for our customers: sustainability, resilience, cost affordability, and predictability. This crash was unusual but once again proved the results possible.”
Currently, the county is working with GreenStruxure on additional sites for future deployment.
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