Two years ago, in one of his final acts as Chattanooga mayor, Andy Berke unveiled plans to build a solar, battery and diesel generator-powered microgrid to ensure power delivery at the city’s police and fire headquarters on Amnicola Highway.
At the time, Berke hoped to have the system in place in six months. The $2 million project ended up taking a year longer than originally projected to complete due to supply chain problems during the pandemic. But since last October, the new microgrid has both guaranteed power delivery for emergency services and boosted the amount of renewable energy produced in Chattanooga.
On Thursday, city and EPB officials celebrated the completion of the “Power to Protect” microgrid based at the Chattanooga Police Services Center and Fire Department administrative headquarters at 3410 Amnicola Highway. Despite the delays, officials say the new system should make power greener and more reliable for the city and could serve as a model for other microgrids the city may install over time on other government buildings.
“Facing an outage in an emergency is a place none of us want to be, especially as first responders,” Chattanooga Fire Chief Phil Hyman said during the unveiling of the new facility Thursday. “From the Easter 2020 tornadoes to this spring’s windstorms, we’ve seen how changing weather impacts our safety, and this microgrid will prepare us to be resilient in any event.”
Mayor Tim Kelly said the microgrid is the latest in the list of smart city innovations Chattanooga has implemented to improve energy service, reliability and cost.