Opportunities for Photovoltaics and Other DER to Improve Energy Resiliency in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), and emphasized the importance of electric grid resiliency. Increased integration of photovoltaics (PV) and other distributed energy resources (DERs) such as storage represent an opportunity to reduce dependency on fossil fuel deliveries and distribution networks with single points of failure, and to increase energy resiliency through local generation and storage of power. However, there are technical challenges including voltage fluctuations and balancing load and generation which must be addressed when integrating PV. In this paper, we provide background on the USVI electric system, discuss the opportunity for PV, and present some technical analysis related to PV integration.