Pillar 1: Customer Value

Portland's First Solar + Energy Storage at Fire Station and Emergency Response Hub

In partnership with the City of Portland, we are in the final stages of building the City of Portland’s first solar-plus-energy storage facility. The facility is located at Portland Fire & Rescue Station 1, a critical emergency response hub for the city.

The solar and energy storage setup will help provide emergency power to the fire station in critical emergencies, and provide PGE customers with power during high energy usage periods and even during normal energy usage periods. In addition to improving grid resiliency, the 30-kilowatt system is projected to save the station approximately $5,000 per year in electricity costs.

This project is part of the City of Portland Fire & Rescue’s citywide integration of renewable energy through microgrids, electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels and demand-response participation. These contributions play an important role in our initiative to create an electric grid that’s more flexible, resilient and integrated.

The station’s solar panels will be installed this summer and the battery will be ready by the end of 2018. While coordinating multiple energy resources, technologies and agencies can be challenging, we’re committed to working collaboratively on projects that move us toward a clean energy future. This project represents a portion of a larger partnership between PGE and the Portland Fire Bureau that also includes their enrollment of all facilities into PGE’s smart thermostat program as well as the utilization of contributions from Green Future’s customer-backed PGE Renewable Development Fund.