Study: Downtown La Crosse microgrids technically feasible; campus-scale systems offer strongest resilience value

Slipstream presented a downtown La Crosse microgrid feasibility and resilience study to the Climate Action Plan Steering Committee, concluding that microgrids are technically feasible across the downtown campus sites and that campus-scale systems deliver the most compelling resilience value.

The analysis examined City Hall, the public library, the law enforcement center, the county administration building, the Health and Human Services building and several Western Technical College buildings. "Microgrids are best understood as a resilient strategy by allowing critical facilities to maintain power during outages," said Adrian, an engineer with Slipstream, explaining the project's focus on protecting public safety, health and human services operations.

Why it matters: the downtown sites support emergency operations and community services; keeping power to them during outages maintains public-safety functions, access to information and sheltering capacity. The study looked beyond traditional utility bill savings to quantify resilience and emissions benefits that are often omitted from standard financial analyses.

Key findings and methods: Slipstream used representative hourly load profiles and modeled scenarios for individual-building and small campus microgrids. The team applied a three-layer resilience framework (engineering design resilience, operational resilience and community resilience) to align technical sizing with community recovery objectives. Adrian said the team used a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab figure in its avoided-outage valuation, noting "they estimate the cost per average kilowatt hour for a 1 hour outage for a large commercial facility... $21.8 per k k w." The study sized battery energy storage systems for four- and eight-hour outage scenarios and tested power (kW) and energy (kWh) combinations to show trade-offs in cost and supported services.

Financial and resilience tradeoffs: Using traditional financial metrics alone, adding batteries and larger PV systems raises upfront costs and weakens straightforward payback metrics. Slipstream's resilience valuation — monetizing avoided outage impacts plus emissions and public-health benefits — materially improved the value proposition in many scenarios. Adrian argued that "traditional finance and metrics alone really undervalue resilience-focused investments." The presentation highlighted that campus-scale systems, where multiple facilities are under the same owner, tend to produce higher resilience value because they support larger aggregated loads and can take better advantage of shared PV and storage.

Implementation recommendations: Slipstream recommended designing microgrid-ready systems (appropriate inverter and control capabilities), integrating existing backup generators where feasible rather than replacing them immediately, planning for modular battery replacement (modules typically last 10–12 years) and conducting early utility interconnection conversations. On funding, the presentation referenced IRA tax-credit opportunities and advised tracking future energy-innovation grant rounds from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and similar programs.

Committee reaction and next steps: Committee members asked how financial outcomes vary among sites; Adrian said Western Technical College and the law enforcement center showed strong pathways because of available PV expansion and round-the-clock operations, respectively. Louis said staff will continue to work with Slipstream to explore economies of scale and monitor grant opportunities. Casey Meehan of Western Technical College thanked the team and said the college will review the study to determine campus next steps.

The committee did not take formal action to adopt a project at this meeting; staff and partners will pursue follow-up design and funding discussions and monitor grant windows.