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North America / Island & remote community

Blue Lake Rancheria Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations24
System facts32
Sources reviewed11
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Blue Lake Rancheria's main community microgrid has operated since 2017 with a 420 kW SolarWorld/SMA PV plant, a 500 kW/950 kWh Tesla Powerpack battery system through two Dynapower inverters, a Siemens Spectrum Power microgrid controller, and a 1 MW Cummins diesel generator. It has islanded through grid outages and supported the surrounding community during disasters. A second Play Station 777 microgrid entered service in 2020, a new Tesla Megapack installation was commissioned in 2024 without a published capacity, and a $5 million 2025 California Energy Commission award is funding a nested 12 kV Microgrid 2.0 expansion.

Research status
The 2017 main microgrid and 2020 Play Station 777 microgrid are operational. The tribe reports commissioning an additional Tesla Megapack installation in 2024, but does not disclose its power or energy capacity. The nested Microgrid 2.0 expansion was funded in June 2025 and remained an active demonstration/expansion effort in 2026; it should not yet be counted as commissioned capacity.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
40.88355, -123.99866
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Blue Lake Rancheria Microgrid?

24 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Blue Lake Rancheria

Tribal owner, project host, and operator/customer of the community resilience microgrids. [5][7][9]

Organization

California Energy Commission

Public funder and oversight agency for the original EPIC demonstration and the $5 million 2025 nested-microgrid award. [5][9][10]

Organization

California Public Utilities Commission

Regulatory participant [3]

Organization

Colburn Electric

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Dark Sky (Apple)

Project vendor listed by the owner team [3]

Organization

GHD

Engineer of record, system integrator, construction manager, commissioning agent, civil engineer, and owner's engineer for the original microgrid. [5]

Organization

Grid Alternatives

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Idaho National Laboratory

Research, testing, and commissioning participant [3]

Organization

INL

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Johnson Controls

Supplier/integrator of the Metasys facility energy-management and load-shedding system. [5]

Organization

Kernen Construction

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Research participant [3]

Organization

McKeever Energy & Electric

PV installation contractor for the original array. [5]

Organization

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Research participant [3]

Organization

NREL

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Utility and project vendor/partner [3]

Organization

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

Interconnecting utility for the 12.5 kV service and invited utility participant in the nested 12 kV testing program. [5][10]

Organization

PG&E

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

REC Solar

Turnkey PV engineering/procurement contractor for the original 420 kW array. [5]

Organization

Robert Colburn Electric

Main electrical contractor for the original project outside the solar scope. [5]

Organization

Schatz Energy Research Center

Lead integrator and concept-of-operations developer for the original project; technical partner for the 2025 nested Microgrid 2.0 project. [5][6][9]

Organization

Siemens

Supplier of the Spectrum Power microgrid management system and power-flow controls. [5][6]

Organization

SunPower

Solar vendor [3]

Organization

Tesla

Supplier and integrator of the original ten-Powerpack BESS; the tribe also reports a separate Tesla Megapack installation commissioned in 2024. [5][6][7]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
500 [1]
KW Fuel Cell
175 [1]
Storage
950 KWH [1]
Verified solar array
420 kW PV [2]
Verified battery system
500 kW / 950 kWh [2]
Backup generation
1 MW generator [4]
Main microgrid PV
420 kW, 1,548 SolarWorld 325 W modules through fourteen 30 kW SMA inverters [5][6]
Main microgrid battery
500 kW / 950 kWh, ten Tesla Powerpacks through two 250 kW Dynapower inverters [5][6]
Backup generator
1 MW Cummins diesel generator [5]
Utility interconnection
12.5 kV PG&E service through a computer-controlled point-of-common-coupling breaker [5]
Play Station 777 microgrid
60 kW PV and a battery reported as 169 kWh by the tribe and 174 kWh by the CEC; operational in 2020 [7][8]
2024 Megapack expansion
New Tesla Megapack installation commissioned in 2024; power and energy ratings were not publicly disclosed in the located source [7]
2017 renewable contribution
PV supplied approximately 15% of on-site electric load in the first operating year; grid electricity, stored energy, and diesel served the balance according to operating mode [5]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Microgrid controller

Siemens — Spectrum Power 7 MGMS

Coordinates the solar, storage, generator, loads, and islanded operation. [4]

02

Battery energy storage

Tesla

500 kW / 950 kWh battery energy storage system. [2][3]

03

Solar PV

SunPower / REC Solar

420 kW community-scale array; the owner team lists SunPower and REC Solar among project vendors. [2][3]

04

PV modules

SolarWorld — Sunmodule SW 325 XL

1,548 modules forming the 420 kW array. [5][6]

05

PV inverters

SMA — Sunny Tripower 30TL-US

Fourteen 30 kW units for the original PV plant. [5][6]

06

Battery system

Tesla — Powerpack

Ten Powerpacks, totaling 500 kW/950 kWh in the original commissioned system. [5]

07

Battery inverters

Dynapower — MPS-250

Two 250 kW power-conversion systems. [5][6]

08

Microgrid controller

Siemens — Spectrum Power MGMS

Supervisory microgrid management, dispatch, islanding, and power-flow control. [5][6]

09

Facility energy management

Johnson Controls — Metasys

Building-load monitoring and automated load shedding coordinated with the microgrid controller. [5]

10

Point-of-common-coupling relay

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories — SEL-700GT+

Protection and interconnection relay at the utility interface. [6]

11

Backup generator

Cummins — KTA38-G1

1 MW diesel generator for prolonged island operation and resilience. [5]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Generation

    Biomass-gasification-fuel cell system that turns biomass into electricity. [1]

  • Generation

    The 175 kilowatt (kW) system is fueled by biomass (plant-based biological material) that has been reduced to sawdust size. [1]

  • Operating performance

    The original project finished on schedule with less than 1.5% cost overrun. It saved approximately $160,000 in 2017 and was expected to save about $200,000 annually thereafter while avoiding 159 metric tons CO2e in 2017 (about 175 tons expected annually). [5]

  • Resilience record

    The main system islanded seamlessly during a 2017 outage. Both tribal microgrids remained operational during a three-day 2019 utility outage, and the tribe reports supporting thousands of people after the December 2022 magnitude-6.4 earthquake. [5][8][7]

  • Nested Microgrid 2.0

    A $5 million CEC award announced 11 June 2025 funds advanced 12 kV nested controls/protection, circuit reconfiguration, and added solar/storage across three facility microgrids, with PG&E invited to testing. Equipment vendors and final capacities were not fixed in the public scope and are not assigned here. [9][10]

  • Regional replication

    The nested project is intended to inform replication along the approximately 142-mile Hoopa 1101 feeder serving Hoopa Valley, Yurok, and Karuk communities. [9]

  • Configuration correction

    The CEC final report for the commissioned 2017 system identifies PV, BESS, grid, and a diesel generator. It does not include the 175 kW biomass/fuel-cell concept found in older planning material; that concept should not be counted as installed main-microgrid capacity. [5]

  • 2026 update

    The tribe hosted an operating-microgrid tour in April 2026 and described ongoing TERAS and nested-microgrid expansion work, providing current evidence that the resilience program remains active. [11]

Provenance

11 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Illustrative Microgrid Partnerships: Blue Lake Rancheria

    U.S. Department of Energy / Blue Lake Rancheria · Primary source

  4. [4]
  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Blue Lake Rancheria Microgrid Fact Sheet

    Blue Lake Rancheria / Schatz Energy Research Center · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Sustainability and Resilience

    Blue Lake Rancheria · Primary source

  8. [8]
    Tribal Microgrids

    California Energy Commission · Primary source

  9. [9]
    Nested Microgrid

    Blue Lake Rancheria · Primary source

  10. [10]
  11. [11]
    Blue Lake Rancheria Hosts Microgrid Tour

    Blue Lake Rancheria · Primary source

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