Author: Mariana Chissell, AEG Junior Fellow, Advanced Energy Group
On August 10 2023, 70 utility leaders, government officials, solution providers, owner/operators, and community representatives convened at Holland & Knight offices to determine critical challenges to grid modernization in Chicagoland. Participants ultimately agreed that “addressing reliability challenges for Worst Performing Circuits at the grid edge with a priority on equity and community engagement” was the most critical obstacle to be addressed within 12 months.
Above: Grant McEachran, Regulatory Affairs Director, S&C Electric Company presents the selected critical obstacle.
A volunteer Task Force was established as an outcome of the challenge and committed to a 90-day goal of defining the “worst-performing” circuits with focus on North Lawndale. In 12 months, the Task Force aims to identify tools to measure load growth and impact on worst-performing circuits, and plan for the advocacy process to propose this metric. The North Lawndale community has been a focal point for energy justice initiatives and was identified as a “worst-performing” circuit, which is defined by high numbers of outages.
Regarding these circuits, Jonathan McGee, Senior Consultant of Economic Development for Baker Tilly stated, “It is imperative that we address the worst performing-circuits in the city because many of those circuits dovetail with impoverished transportation and economic deserts in the city, only exacerbating inequity and the racial wealth gap.”
Since the workshop, Task Force members aligned on submitting an application for the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) Grant which supports industry leaders who are equitably growing the clean energy workforce through energy efficiency projects in low-income communities.
The Task Force also partnered with North Lawndale community members such as The Will Group, North Lawndale Employment Network , and University of Illinois Chicago to ensure that their actions are grounded in community support. Community involvement is critical; Mark Petri, Grid Security and Resilience Lead from Argonne National Labs, emphasized, “If we didn’t have these interactions with AEG and these local communities, we might be working on problems that don’t really need fixing.”
Above: AEG highlights a site visit of The Will Group in North Lawndale. Watch the full video here.
The Task Force collected data and metrics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Justice (EJ) Screen, and Argonne National Laboratory 's Geospatial Energy Mapper (GEM) to display the interaction between health, economic, and social factors surrounding energy justice in North Lawndale in an interactive story map. The visuals simplify complex data and provide transparency in ongoing energy projects. This approach can be replicated in similar areas, enhancing community engagement but also supporting data-driven decision-making, ensuring that solutions are tailored to the specific needs of the residents. Visit the Task Force 90 sprint report and interactive map here.
By integrating story map data with technical details on grid resiliency and worst-performing circuits, the task force aims to address North Lawndale's infrastructure needs, streamline grant applications, and identify similar communities in Chicagoland for future energy justice and grid modernization efforts.