The Town Board of Lewisboro, NY, declined to hear a proposal from entrepreneur Mike Gordon that would have made the town a consortium to sell electricity back to utilities. Gordon’s idea involved charging utilities for energy management via smart appliances. By pooling the power savings as a town, the citizens would have, in effect, acted like power plants selling their electricity (or reduced use thereof in this case) back to the utilities. Fearing the plan was complicated and that it was not a town priority, the Board declined even to hear the proposal. According to the report, the board debated for nearly 25 minutes on whether to hear a 5-minute proposal.

   Quick Take: This illustrates the kind of political obstacles that may be the biggest barrier in the U.S. to the microgrid concept. See the link below for an analysis we did a couple of years back.

   SGN analysis of the microgrid trend

   SGN report and analysis of Gordon’s plan

   Lewisboro Ledger story