#artofthepossible

Because microgrids are separate from the larger U.S. electrical grid, they can operate even when the main grid can’t. The power from the microgrids can help power hospitals, emergency response workers, and other crucial public services.  

Project coordinator, Michelle Isenhouer Hanlin. // Booz Allen Hamilton

The coordinator of Booz Allen’s NY Prize work, Michelle Isenhouer Hanlin, says she believes these microgrid projects have life-saving effects. She says the microgrids will help “power hospitals in the event of an emergency and provide evacuation plans and places for people to go if and when there’s another Sandy or another drastic even in the state of New York.  

Gary Leatherman, who’s leading Booz Allen’s NY Prize efforts, echoes that sentiment, “at the end of the day, these projects, if and when implemented, will help save lives, save jobs, and save communities.”

Microgrids provide an energy backup in the event of emergencies by leveraging nontraditional power sources, like these solar panels at the USDA’s George Washington Carver Center in Beltsville, MD. // Booz Allen Hamilton

It’s challenging, ground-breaking work, but Scott Thigpen, who works alongside Isenhouer Hanlin and Leatherman, says that their work is changing minds about “what the art of the possible is in the energy field.”

“We’re always working on the next generation of technologies and people are always telling us, this can’t be done, it won’t be done. One of the great rewards you get out of the job is that we show people by the application of innovation and by working together there’s a lot of great projects out there that can be done.”

One of the most exciting things about this work is, now that the study and research is complete, Booz Allen is moving into unchartered territory–actually working to design and construct these microgrid systems.

“Getting to be a part of that new movement is very exciting,” Isenhouer Hanlin says.