Community Microgrids
The local energy alternative supporting strong communities | La alternativa energética local que apoya a las comunidades fuertes
The story
The population of Puerto Rico needs an energy alternative offering reliability at affordable cost.
We believe that this alternative exists in the form of energy generated by local sponsors and distributed to their neighbors.
DexGrid's products facilitate this transition, promoting sustainable community microgrids.
A microgrid is a localized power grid, with its own source of energy supply, serving a relatively small network of electricity users. A microgrid can be either connected to the utility grid or operate independently.
A community microgrid is a microgrid that sells and distributes locally generated and stored electricity to consumers of the community.
Within community microgrids:
Anchors are the sponsors, the local businesses, manufacturers, homeowner associations and municipalities that kickstart a microgrid project for sustainable and lower cost electricity while, at the same time, selling their electricity to their neighbors. These anchors can be Rookies (non-energy experts) and Pros (experts in energy).
Neighbors are the electricity consumers of the community microgrids alongside the anchor. Neighbors make up a diversified group of consumers, ranging from low income households to businesses.
Neighbors include also the electricity prosumers, such as the neighbors with their own energy generation and storage systems, looking to sell their excess electricity for real money, instead of discounted utility credits. Prosumers may also be consumers of the microgrid.
The Community Microgrids program
DexGrid offers a comprehensive solution including:
GridLauncher, the digital microgrids incubator
GridUser, the digital marketplace and users operator
GridLauncher, the digital microgrids incubator
Click GridLauncher for more details or Sign up to start your free project incubation trial (Both Rookie and Pro versions available now)
GridUser, the digital marketplace and users operator
The GridUser is the digital interface that operates the marketplace between the buyers and sellers of electricity, as well as features such as the incentives to the consumers and aligning their consumption behaviors with the best performance of the energy assets.
We estimate annual savings up to 30% with electricity uptime reaching 100%.
As projects make progress on the GridLauncher, DexGrid will release additional information on the GridUser
Real-life stoy: The rise of a community microgrid, introducing Jim
Jim is the owner of a mid-size, industrial company located in the Penuelas municipality, on the southern shore of the island of Puerto Rico. Like many other business owners, Jim has to deal with several service interruptions on a regular basis, negatively affecting his company's profitability.
He had to stop all operations after Maria in September-October 2017 and the series of earthquakes, averaging 15,000 tremors annually since the peak of December 2019. Every year, the months of August to October bring back fears among the communities in Puerto Rico when the next hurricane will hit the island.
Initially, Jim's attempt to fix this problem was to acquire and install his own energy generation system. However, after doing some research, he realized that he needed some help to reduce the associated costs and handle the microgrid operations.
All things considered, Jim is in a favorable position. He runs a large business, owns acres of property and enjoys an average of 8+ hours a day of sun. Since Penuelas is in Puerto Rico, his neighbors are anxious for an alternative offering reliable electricity at an affordable cost.
The question became: can he sell his electricity to his neighbors? And if so, how can he run the pricing and exchange around the operation of such a grid? How can he handle the users?
About a year ago, DexGrid had the pleasure to meet with Jim. We learned a lot from his story and the needs of his community. We designed our app with these concerns and priorities in mind.
For instance, as a business manager, Jim has a tight schedule. Our GridLauncher app focuses on simplifying the process to successfully develop a community microgrid.
The last news
DexGrid has successfully signed $20 million of private funding committed to projects incubated in the GridLauncher. We invite all projects anchors to take advantage of this great opportunity today!!
DexGrid is also working hard with public grant programs to roll-out a $50,000 grant to be applied towards pre-development costs currently incurred by project sponsors.
Off the 25 projects incubated in the GridLauncher, 3 are in their pre-development stage, getting ready to raise capital and partner with professional developers
What's next?
Have a project in mind? Sign up now for a free trial on the Rookie version and take advantage of the $20 million committed to projects.
Available now, the GridLauncher PRO version including great new features such as customizing consumers and energy generation technologies.
Projects rolling into their pre-development stage will complete their engineering design and onboard their first customers through their First Touch Campaign
Now is the time to act! We need anchors. Join us!
We're reaching out to business owners and managers to lead this effort and get their community microgrids going.
Join us in launching this energy alternative for your communities in Puerto Rico.
Your leadership matters. Everyone in the community will reap the benefits in supporting this effort for Puerto Rico.
Sign up for free or reach out to us for more information on how to anchor your microgrid project.
Groups ideally positioned to take this leadership in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico USDA Rural Development
Departamento de Desarrollo Economico y Comercio DDEC
Corporate Environmental, Social and Governance programs
Solar developers in Puerto Rico
Grupo Ferre Rangel and other family offices in Puerto Rico
Blue Planet and other battery storage brands present in Puerto Rico
CostcoPR
WalmartPR
Consorcio Energetico de la Montana and all municipality leaders of Puerto Rico
And all the others...
We can do it!
We targeted up to 30 microgrid projects to join the incubator by the end of 2022.
Mission accomplished!
We are now targeting up to 10 projects to complete their pre-development stage, run their First Touch Campaign and raise the capital necessary to run their development stage within the next 6 months. We hope to surpass this number.
Reach out to us for more information
How I can help
In several ways:
Sign up for free and start your community microgrid project
Sponsor or reach out to us to discuss how you can contribute to make PR strong!
Spread the word to potential projects sponsors and anchors
Reach out to us for any other topic benefiting La Isla del Encanto.
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