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City of Fort Wayne now operating a Microgrid

City Utilities workers work on solar panels for city's green energy initiative
Frank Suarez
/
City of Fort Wayne
City Utilities workers work on solar panels for city's green energy initiative last year. The solar array came online Wednesday, Oct. 30.

The City of Fort Wayne turned on its Microgrid Wednesday, becoming one of few cities in the country to generate its own power for its water and sewer utilities.

Last September, the city installed a floating solar panel array on the Water Pollution Control storage ponds.

The energy collected from those 12,000 panels will provide much of the average daily power for the Three Rivers Filtration Plant, the Water Pollution Control Plant, and the Wet-Weather Pump Station.

These small power networks,

or Microgrids, use a local source of energy supply to function independently, and also remain connected to the national grid.

According to a release from the city, the Microgrid will also combine the solar energy with energy captured from biogas from food waste and natural gas engines to amplify renewable energy generation.

The award-winning Microgrid will provide about 40 percent of the power to run those three facilities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4,600 tons annually.

Additional power will be stored in a system of batteries for cloudy and low-sunlight periods.

Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker praised the project as a demonstration to the city’s commitment to providing an enhanced quality of life for everyone.

City officials said the cost for operating all three facilities was about $2.8 million in 2023. They expect the project will pay for itself in about 20 years, and save an additional $8- to $10 million

Rebecca manages the news at WBOI. She joined the staff in December 2017, and brought with her nearly two decades of experience in print journalism, including 15 years as an award-winning reporter for the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne.
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