Power Company Leads Questa, New Mexico to Microgrids
The village of Questa, 25 miles north of Taos, lost an important income source and jobs for locals when the 100-year-old mine closed three years ago. Then, drought, catastrophic wildfires, and winds causing power outages began to impact several communities in Northern New Mexico.
That is when Luis Reyes, CEO of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, began searching for a solution to enhance the city’s energy portfolio and bring new jobs to the area. He landed on something called hydrogen microgrids.
Questa received a grant to study the viability of the project and after 18 months, the National Renewable Energy Lab in Boulder, Colorado returned its conclusion. The proposed project came back as viable.
“The technology is proven. Hydrogen has been around on the private side for a while now. We are just taking that technology and using it for a long duration battery and using it to create electricity for rural areas that are isolated,” Reyes said.
Microgrids are localized energy systems that use various power sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative plans to use the hydrogen fuel cells to power small communities, businesses and critical public services.
“We can create a microgrid where we can serve parts of our system while the other parts may be out of power. There will still be parts of the system that keep critical infrastructure operating for the public safety,” said Reyes.
Microgrids can offer resilience, sustainability and a cost effective source of clean energy. “The members of the coop agree for all these reasons, hydro microgrids are worth it for their community. "
“If you create the hydrogen through an electrolyzer, it’s clean. And, run it through a fuel cell, it’s clean. It’s clean energy, which our community wants,” Reyes continued. “And it would create jobs, both in construction and operations.”
Safety and engineering studies are now underway. The project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2028. Construction will employ between 1300 and 1500 workers and long-term operations of the microgrids requires 30 full-time employees.
“One of the things I’m looking at is helping local citizens get new skill sets, so these skills are transferable to other towns and cities,” Reyes said. “Then, you kind of take what you learned here and get jobs at other energy projects in the region.”
Reyes admits there are challenges. These challenges include escalating costs for materials, supply chain issues, identifying and preparing for safety issues, and acquiring the highest capacity storage batteries.
The American Public Power Association reports other challenges such as regulatory hurdles and implementing and maintaining technical integrations between multiple systems.
The Kit Carson Electric Coop sells most of its electricity during the winter months and lower during the summer. By using fossil fuels, solar and hydrogen, the coop can select the best energy source for the need, and assure availability in an emergency.
Cities in Colorado and Utah are also developing microgrids while Idaho Falls, Idaho successfully uses hydro power to support customers during critical outages. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports as of March 2024 there were operating fuel cell generators at 151 power facilities across the United States.
