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North America / Commercial & demonstration

United Illuminating Planned Microgrid in Connecticut

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

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations6
System facts12
Sources reviewed8
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

This record is the Town of Woodbridge community microgrid centered on Amity Regional High School, not merely a proposed United Illuminating CHP installation. United Illuminating owns a 2.2 MW FuelCell Energy molten-carbonate fuel-cell plant that normally exports baseload power to the utility grid. Dedicated underground circuits and switchgear allow seven municipal facilities to separate from the wider grid during an outage, with fuel-cell waste heat serving the high school. The fuel cell came online in 2017 and the full microgrid launched in 2018. State and manufacturer records continue to present it as operational; no battery or solar component is documented.

Research status
Operational since 2018. Fuel-cell generation began operating in 2017 while the resilience distribution network was still under construction.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
2 MW
Coordinates
41.35751, -73.00767
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 United Illuminating Planned Microgrid in Connecticut?

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

Organization

Amity Regional School District No. 5

Host of the fuel-cell plant and recipient of useful heat at Amity Regional High School. [2][5][7]

Organization

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Awarded $3 million through the state Microgrid Grant and Loan Program and tracks the project as operational. [3]

Organization

FuelCell Energy

Designed/supplied the SureSource fuel-cell power plant and microgrid control solution and provides contracted plant operations/service support. [2][4][7][8]

Organization

FuelCell Energy Inc

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

Organization

Town of Woodbridge, Connecticut

Host community and beneficiary; municipal emergency facilities are connected to the islandable network. [3][6]

Organization

United Illuminating

Project owner, interconnecting utility and operator/dispatcher of the generation and microgrid assets. [4][5][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.

Storage
NA [1]
Fuel-cell electrical output
2.2 MW — Delivered/contracted output repeatedly reported for Woodbridge. The generic SureSource 3000 product can have a different catalog rating; the project-specific 2.2 MW figure governs here. [2][3][4][7]
Critical facilities served
7 — Amity Regional High School plus town hall, library/senior center, police headquarters, fire headquarters and public works facilities; source wording/grouping varies slightly but state and project sources agree on seven. [2][3][6][8]
State grant
$3 million — Connecticut microgrid program award for islanding/distribution infrastructure. [3]
Fuel and storage
Pipeline natural gas; no battery energy storage documented — Molten-carbonate fuel-cell CHP provides firm baseload. The reviewed project sources do not identify PV or BESS capacity. [2][7]

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

Molten-carbonate fuel-cell CHP

FuelCell Energy — SureSource 3000

Quantity/status: One 2.2 MW project installation — Normally supplies baseload to the United Illuminating grid and supplies useful heat to the high school. Project output should not be replaced with a newer generic product-catalog rating. [2][7]

02

Microgrid distribution and controls

FuelCell Energy / project contractors — Dedicated underground feeders, switchgear and automated microgrid controls; exact component models not disclosed

Quantity/status: Network serving seven facilities — Designed for transfer from grid-parallel operation to an islanded municipal circuit and subsequent resynchronization. [4][7]

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

    CHP Plant also provides heat and hot water for Amity Region High School [1]

  • Operating mode

    In normal conditions the fuel cell is a steady 2.2 MW generator on UI's distribution system. During a grid outage, switching isolates the dedicated underground municipal network so the plant can serve seven critical facilities. Recovered heat is used at Amity Regional High School. [2][4][7]

  • Timeline and phase boundary

    UI finalized the development arrangement in 2015. The fuel cell began producing power in January 2017, but contemporaneous reporting corrected an initial implication that the whole microgrid was complete. The full community microgrid was launched in May 2018, and CT DEEP records February 2018 as the operational date. [3][4][5][6]

  • Current performance evidence

    FuelCell Energy's 2020 performance release and 2024 sustainability report continue to cite Woodbridge as a successful operating microgrid. The reviewed public sources do not provide recent availability, outage hours served, annual MWh, heat output or fuel-use data, so those metrics remain unverified. [7][8]

  • Naming caution

    Older database titles call this a 'planned United Illuminating microgrid.' It is now an operating Town of Woodbridge community resilience project. The generation plant and islandable feeder network reached operation on different dates. [3][5][6]

Provenance

8 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 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
    Connecticut Microgrid Grant and Loan Program Project Award Tracking

    Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection · Primary source

  4. [4]
    UI Finalizes Deal to Build Microgrid in Woodbridge

    United Illuminating / FuelCell Energy · Primary source

  5. [5]
    Fuel Cell Comes Online in Woodbridge

    Connecticut Public · Secondary research

  6. [6]
    Woodbridge Celebrates Launch of Microgrid

    New Haven Register · Secondary research

  7. [7]
  8. [8]
    2024 Sustainability Report

    FuelCell Energy · Primary source

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