County Executive Marc Elrich unveiled a new resiliency hub powered by renewable energy microgrids on Tuesday.
The hub, which is located at the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center (MCASAC) in Derwood, is the county’s second resiliency hub.
Elrich was joined at the ribbon cutting ceremony by Jose Lorenzo Lista, the CEO of GreenStruxure; David Dise, the director of the Montgomery Department of General Services; and Thomas Koenig, the director of MCASAC.
The microgrids at the animal shelter have already been operating and helping the community. This past November, the microgrids allowed the shelter to stay open when a plane was caught in nearby electrical wires for several hours, according to a press release about the event.
Tuesday’s ceremony was the official announcement of the microgrids and emphasized their role in enabling the shelter to remain operational during power outages.
“The Montgomery County Animal Services & Adoption Center was not impacted because it was able to use stored energy from solar panels. That avoided compounding the emergency and having to move all the animals out,” Elrich tweeted following the ceremony.
Microgrids allow facilities to run independently of the larger power grid, according to Montgomery County’s website, by combining clean and renewable energy sources. Montgomery County and GreenStruxure collaborated to create the MCASAC resiliency hub.
The county’s first resiliency hub was dedicated in April at the Bette Carol Thompson Scotland Neighborhood Recreation Center in Potomac.
[1/3] This one is for the dogs, the cats & the humans. Investing in microgrids and resiliency hubs has already paid off. Less than one month into operation last November a nearby plane crash led to a power outage near the Montgomery County Airpark. pic.twitter.com/cP3Y8MqOzB
— County Exec Marc Elrich (@MontCoExec) June 13, 2023
Feature photo courtesy of Montgomery County.
