New Microgrids to Bring Energy Sovereignty to Colville Tribes
Four new microgrids will advance the energy sovereignty and resilience for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in northern Washington state.
The installations, which were announced by the Colville Tribes and energy solutions provider Open Access Technology International (OATI) on Wednesday, will reduce the number of outages, help manage energy costs and provide-long term energy independence for many of the reservation’s roughly 7,300 residents.
"Since the Colville Reservation is in a remote location, subject to natural events like winter storms and fires, it has always been difficult for us to sustain a reliable supply of power,” said Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. “Our hope is that this microgrid technology will not only keep our lights on but will also position us for new economic opportunities."
Microgrids tailored for each location’s needs
The Colville Tribes have been working with OATI on the design and development of microgrid projects for the past two years.
“We've walked the sites, we've determined the different loads and the capabilities and what we want each one to do,” said David Heim, vice president and chief strategy officer of OATI, in an interview with Microgrid Knowledge. “We're working through the schematic design and then the design development process of the engineering phase. From there, we'll select equipment, define asset types and then move into selection of contractors and the installation project.”
A grid-connected, islandable microgrid will be installed in each of the reservation’s legislative districts: Omak, Nespelem, Keller, and Inchelium.
Each site will include solar photovoltaic (PV), energy storage and OATI’s GridMind platform to manage microgrid resources and integrate them into the broader grid.
“We will likely [also include] some form of backup generation, either in terms of diesel or natural gas, as a fallback if the PV and batteries aren’t sufficient for the islanding runtime that's needed,” Heim said.
The size of each microgrid will vary based on the unique needs of the community it will serve.
In Nespelem, near the center of the 1.4 million acre (2,100 square mile) reservation, a 2.2 MW microgrid will be built at the Lucy F. Covington Government Center. It will include 300 kW to 600 kW of rooftop and carport solar, 1.9 MW / 3.9 MWh battery energy storage, and a 2 MW generator.
The installation will transform the tribal headquarters campus into a resiliency hub, supporting Colville’s executive, legislative and judicial operations, as well as emergency services, food distribution, a fuel station, convenience store and the area’s Headstart program.
On the far east side of the reservation, a solar and energy storage microgrid will power a health clinic, gas station and community store in the remote community of Inchelium. Located along the Columbia River, the town endures multiple outage days per year – some lasting multiple days – due to wind or fire-related events.
The third microgrid will be built just south of Omak on the northwestern border of the reservation. Located at the Paschal Sherman Indian School (PSIS), it will provide reliable power to the school and resiliency to the surrounding community.
Both the Inchelium and PSIS systems are expected to include between 400 and 600 kW of ground-mounted or rooftop solar and a 1.9 MW / 3.9 MWh battery energy storage system.
The fourth microgrid will be built about 25 miles to the east of Nespelem, in Keller. The solar and energy storage system will serve the city’s wellness center, community store and fueling station.
Funding for the microgrids has come from a myriad of federal and state grants, including money from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington State Department of Commerce.
The goal: Energy sovereignty
The common theme across all the installations is resiliency—ensuring basic services are available during grid outages, be that access to fuel, healthcare, fresh food and heating or cooling centers.
But energy sovereignty – the ability to produce, deliver and manage energy on its own lands – is equally as important to the Colville Tribes and other Native American communities.
“We’re seeing tremendous interest from tribal communities in pursuit of energy sovereignty,” said Sasan Mokhtari, president & CEO of OATI. “Microgrids are more than backup power—they empower communities to shape their own energy destiny.”
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, also in Washington, is working with ELM Companies on a solar and storage microgrid for its senior center.
The Hopi Reservation is powering two water wells in northeast Arizona with a solar and battery storage microgrid. In Maine, the Penobscot Nation is using rooftop solar and a microgrid to lower energy costs and “control their own resiliency,” Michael Burgess, economic and community development director at Penobscot Nation, said last year.
For the Colville Tribes, achieving energy sovereignty would help address challenges created by the reservation’s reliance on multiple electric utilities, each providing different levels of service
“We want to make sure that we're not relying on any other entity [for our power],” Erikson told Microgrid Knowledge.
To that end, the Colville Tribes established its own utility. Though still in its early stages of development, Erikson and Heim expect operations and maintenance of the microgrids will ultimately be turned over to tribal utility staff.
Until the tribal utility is more established, OATI will support the systems and provide workforce training services.
Combating rising energy prices
Chairman Erikson expects the new microgrids and increased energy sovereignty will help manage energy costs for his community members, many of whom are on fixed incomes.
“We have to find a way to at least keep energy costs consistent, if not lower them,” Erikson said.
They may also provide new revenue generation opportunities. As the tribal utility and its generation capacity grows, the Colville Tribes may leverage the microgrids to support local utilities and participate in regional energy markets.
Building tribal energy diversity for the future
The reservation is well-suited for solar generation, but tribal members are reluctant to install large solar farms. “We like to keep our land pretty natural,” Erikson said.
While some of the microgrid’s solar arrays will be ground mounted, the design includes rooftop arrays wherever possible.
The microgrids are also designed to scale over time. By taking a modular approach, OATI and the Colville Tribes are future-proofing the installations, making it simpler to add new generation resources as they become available.
For example, Chairman Erikson said they are closely following the potential partnership between the nearby Chelan County Public Utility Department and fusion company Helion to see if that technology might one day be a good addition to their energy mix.
Helion is working on one of the world’s first fusion power plants, creating electricity by fusing atoms together—the same process that powers the sun. So far, researchers have only gotten nominal net energy production from fusion experiments, but the progress is encouraging growth of startups and facility projects.
The Colville Tribes are also investing in electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In addition to the microgrid projects, OATI is installing electric vehicle chargers at various sites across the reservation. While phase one chargers will not be bidirectional, those co-located with a microgrid will be controlled by that microgrid.
The EV work in Colville aligns with a broader initiative to expand charging access in tribal communities. In partnership with Minnesota-based nonprofit Native Sun Community Power Development, OATI will provide technology and controls expertise to support Native Sun’s deployment of smart EV charging and related clean energy solutions across the Upper Midwest.
About the Author
Kathy Hitchens
Special Projects Editor
I work as a writer and special projects editor for Microgrid Knowledge. I have over 30 years of writing experience, working with a variety of companies in the renewable energy, electric vehicle and utility sector, as well as those in the entertainment, education, and financial industries. I have a BFA in Media Arts from the University of Arizona and a MBA from the University of Denver.