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Cuyahoga committee clears Euclid microgrid substitute, urges quick second reading to lock federal funds
Summary
Cuyahoga County’s education and environment committee approved a substitute to add federal grant funding and recommended second-reading suspension for a proposed Euclid microgrid, citing resilience and local renewable energy benefits; council staff said the project is entering pre-construction with $70–$90 million estimated cost and letters of interest from manufacturers.
Council members voted July 2 to approve a substitute to Resolution 20250225 that adds federal grant language and funding for a proposed Euclid microgrid and recommended second‑reading suspension so the county can move quickly on engineering and financing. The committee’s action clears a procedural hurdle but does not by itself authorize construction.
The county’s Department of Public Works presented the project as a county‑operated distribution utility serving an industrial corridor in Euclid. Mike Foley, who introduced the item for public works, said the microgrid has passed preliminary feasibility and is “pre‑construction,” and that council approval would allow the county to proceed to detailed engineering and to seek construction financing.
Why it matters: supporters said the microgrid would improve reliability for manufacturers that have faced repeated outages and would increase local renewable energy. Foley told the committee the system would run underground distribution lines, include a substation that taps the transmission grid, and combine on‑site solar with batteries and natural‑gas gensets so customers can be islanded from the larger grid during outages.
County staff and private partners described the project’s scale and funding. Greg Booth of the law department read the substitute whereas language that, as presented, adds roughly $10,640,050 in additional funds “including $640,050 from the grant from the Department of Energy and $10,000,000 from the CPRG [Climate Pollution Reduction Grant].” Rick Bolton of Compass Energy Platform said Compass and its investors have already spent development funds at risk; Compass received a $1.5 million DOE award that the company is matching.
Foley said initial engineering shows the Euclid district has about 12–15 megawatts of load across roughly six locations (about a mile‑and‑a‑half square area) and maybe 10 customers. He said the county has letters of interest from local manufacturers and expects to enter 20‑year power‑purchase agreements with off‑takers once the project advances. Foley also described governance: the county would own distribution lines, meters and some solar; a Project LLC would own the substation, batteries and some solar and run day‑to‑day operations, while the county retains step‑in rights and oversight.
Compass’ preliminary finance estimate put the Euclid project in a roughly $70 million to $90 million range. Bolton said the project will pay the county $50,000 toward interconnection and another $50,000 at commercial operation, with an estimated county revenue of about $200,000 a year once online.
Committee members asked about risk and interconnection. Foley said the application for interconnection is made to ATSI (a FirstEnergy group) and that ATSI will perform a load study that will take a few months. On the county’s exposure, Foley described escrow and step‑in rights intended to protect the county if the Project LLC or developer encounters financial difficulties.
Euclid’s planning director, Patrick Grogan Myers, told the committee the city supports the project and does not anticipate zoning changes because the sites are in industrial districts. Several council members praised the project as an economic development attractor and cited recent outages that highlighted distribution vulnerabilities; Foley told the committee the county lost power in the administration building for “2 or 3 days” during a recent event.
The committee approved the substitute and voted to recommend second‑reading suspension so the county can better position itself to use tax credits and federal grants. That recommendation now moves with the legislation to the full Cuyahoga County Council for further consideration.
Next steps: the county requested periodic updates to the committee and will proceed with detailed engineering work, the interconnection application to ATSI, and continued negotiation of financing and offtake agreements.
Direct quotes used in this article are drawn from the committee record.
