Trending: Bloom pushes fuel-cell microgrids as alternative to prolonged fire-related outages in California.

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Bloom Energy photo of Newark plant.
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Bloom Energy announced today a new Quick-Deploy Microgrid Program to help customers prepare for future wildfire seasons with  microgrids for their facilities.

This program will enable customers to deploy a resilient microgrid infrastructure prior to the anticipated start of the 2020 wildfire season as well as receive clean electricity at a predictable cost to mitigate the impact of utility rate increases, a release stated. 

Bloom manufactures fuel cell systems that can serve as back up power during outages while producing electricity around the clock.

Bloom has its main production plant in Newark at the University of Delaware STAR Campus.The company is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

California recently instituted intentional outages called Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) with the objective of reducing wildfires and improving public safety.

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These blackouts have been deemed as California’s “new normal” for the next 10 years or longer, Bloom stated.  Since October 2017, the  events have resulted in a reported 2,374 outages affecting 2.3 million customers.

the  longest planned event during the two-year span lasted six days, and the average duration was nearly two full days.

As a result, companies are turning to microgrids as a solution to safeguard their operations. Bloom Energy has  89 microgrids deployed globally.

Bloom Energy also announced a new Power Outage Map, which allows users to see the number of blackouts and customers impacted in California since October 2017. Bloom Energy, working with Bluefire Studios, a company that monitors utilities throughout the country, created the outage map, which currently has data for all blackouts that affected at least 100 customers in California during the two-year-plus period.

Businesses in California can now assess their risk on a city-level in a matter of seconds to inform their energy resiliency strategy.

Since October 2017, the outage map shows there have been more than 50,000 blackout events in the state affecting the equivalent of approximately 51 million customers. To get the full picture and review further insights, please visit the Power Outage Map.

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