Case Snapshot: Smart Neighborhood - Reynolds Landing

The Southeast's first community-scale microgrid.

Location: Birmingham, Alabama

Scope: The Smart Neighborhood microgrid sits on five acres and has the capacity to generate more than 600,000 kilowatts annually, which is enough to power the 62-home subdivision of Reynolds Landing at Ross Bridge. The neighborhood is powered by the microgrid and the existing electric grid.

Customers who choose to enroll will pay a per-therm premium on their bill each month. As a service offered by Nicor Gas to our customers, Nicor Gas will procure carbon offsets and the environmental attributes from RNG projects on the participating customer's behalf.

Natural Gas Generator: Back-up generation source to ensure reliability of the microgrid. Uses natural gas to create electricity.

Battery: Stores energy generated for when it is needed. The equivalent to over 200,000 alkaline batteries.

Power Equipment Center: Acts as the control center of the microgrid — contains batteries, system controller, communications server, and switchgear.

Solar Array: Converts light from the sun into energy that can be used to power the neighborhood and existing electric grid, or stored in the batteries. Eleven rows of solar panels with more than 1,200 modules.