Microgrids for Climate-Vulnerable Areas: Lessons from Puerto Rico for Houston

By: Melissa Tariq Rodriguez

Photo by RICARDO ARDUENGO/ HONNOLD FOUNDATION

The energy capital of the world might have to reexamine its own energy competency. After Texas’ power grid came dangerously close to complete failure during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 (Douglas 2021), and after subsequent storms knocked out power for millions of customers in the Houston area alone (Lavandera and Killough 2024), it is apparent that Houston is in need of greater energy resilience. The municipal Houston government should look for inspiration in areas that have faced similar challenges – namely, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where community organizations, universities, federal agencies, and insular governments are working together to keep the lights on. 

The 3.2 million residents of Puerto Rico pay for “some of the most expensive and least reliable electricity” in the entire country (Wyss 2022) and suffer from blackouts of significant frequency and duration. Seven years ago, 200,000 families were left powerless for over six months after Hurricane María. Earthquakes (Corujo et. al. 2020) and tropical storms have caused blackouts (“Thousands in Puerto Rico without Power, under Flood Threats as Ernesto Turns into Hurricane.” 2024) and blackouts are experienced by hundreds of thousands of customers on the island even in storm-free times (“Outraged Puerto Rico Residents Express Frustration over Widespread Power Outages.” 2024).

It is critical to narrow down on the problem: Puerto Rico suffers from transmission issues, not necessarily a lack of generation capabilities. There is only one unified power grid that energizes the whole island, as opposed to most communities in the continental U.S., where energy can be brought in from another grid when needed (Garg 2022). The majority of the island’s electricity has to travel over great distances from the power plants to the population centers. A tropical storm, a tree falling, or even a mechanical failure could, and often does, knock out a power line and leave entire communities in the dark. The now-bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority failed to perform necessary maintenance on the energy grid for decades, weakening it significantly (Brown et. al. 2017). The grid continues to deteriorate due to frequent tropical hurricanes, such as the devastating Category 4 Hurricane María in 2017 (Zahn 2022).  

This situation of a central grid with unreliable service situated in a climate vulnerable community has spurred communities to adopt microgrids: small energy grids made up of local generators and storage. These systems can disconnect from a larger energy grid and run on their own. In Puerto Rico, when the island’s power goes out, any homes or businesses connected to a microgrid should continue to have power. The energy can be generated by traditional sources, like diesel or natural generators typically used by hospitals, as well as renewable sources, like solar panels on a home’s roof or a single wind turbine on a college campus. The latter are increasingly being tapped into, as Puerto Rico has “more than enough renewable energy potential to power the whole island,” according to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Laboratory (Bentley 2023). 

These systems are well-aligned with global goals of sustainability and energy transition, but perhaps their greatest impact is on the communities they serve. Microgrids improve reliability in the context of natural disasters and unreliable macrogrids, and they mitigate the risks that frequent power outages pose to homes and businesses. For these reasons, the Puerto Rican and federal government have taken an active role in rewarding microgrid implementation efforts on the island. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) both allocate funds to municipalities and states through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), respectively. In 2022, $1.3 billion in CDBG-DR funds were set aside for the development of more microgrids in Puerto Rico (Wyss 2022). A year later, an almost $97 million project was approved to develop a solar microgrid for the municipalities of Culebra and Vieques (FEMA 2023). The Department of Energy similarly launched the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) “in consultation with local entities and communities” to make the energy landscape more resilient (Grid Deployment Office). Residents can apply for the PR-ERF’s Solar Access Program, which aims to provide low cost solar plus storage systems to up to 30,000 low-income households in communities with frequent, long-lasting blackouts (Kamoji 2024). These various federal government programs strategically create partnerships with community organizations, local governments, and individual households to improve resilience in as many places as possible. 

Houston has much to learn from Puerto Rico’s example. The Texas grid is just as isolated as Puerto Rico’s. Although by choice, the Texas grid is unable to bring energy from the Eastern or Western interconnected grid systems (Hao 2024). Despite ample power generation capabilities in typical times, the Texas grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has struggled to keep the power on, due to insufficient preparedness for extreme weather conditions and transmission vulnerabilities (Douglas et. al. 2021). This situation directly mirrors conditions faced by energy authorities in Puerto Rico. Texas lawmakers are responding by attempting to strengthen the centralized grid – which could take decades to do, according to the CEO of Grid United, a Houston-based energy transmission company (Martinez and Foxhall 2024).

Instead of waiting for the state government to update the traditional grid, Houston should advance policy that encourages more immediate solutions and positions the city as a model for energy innovation and resilience. In 2020, the City of Houston declared its intention to lead the energy transition as part of its first Climate Action Plan (McGuinness 2020) – microgrids should be a part of this effort. The City of Houston’s Housing and Community Development department has recently allocated $6 million of CDBG-DR funds to install “power backup and renewable energy systems” for three health centers in low to middle income areas (Nichols 2024). With continued investment of federal funds towards similar initiatives enabling community organizations and businesses to launch microgrid implementation projects, Houston will best be able to support its residents as climate disasters intensify and the traditional grid ages. Developing microgrids will diversify Houston’s energy sources, reduce its dependency on a centralized grid, and improve resilience – keeping the city’s energy policy forward-looking.

The views expressed in this publication are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Rice Journal of Public Policy, its staff, or its Editorial Board.

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References

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