CEC proposes $4 million tribal microgrid test to address interconnection delays

The California Energy Commission is proposing a $4 million grant to BoxPower Inc. for a four-year demonstration of flexible-interconnection technology and battery-backed islanding at the Colusa Indian Community reservation in Colusa.

The CEC’s grant packet identifies the project, called INFINITE, as Agreement EPC-26-011 under the Electric Program Investment Charge program. The proposed term runs from Oct. 19, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2030.

The demonstration would install an advanced distributed-energy-resource controller at an existing reservation facility and pair it with a 400-kilowatt/1.3-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system. The project would test grid-connected, non-export, export-limited and islanding modes, as well as the controller’s ability to manage imports and exports at the point of common coupling.

According to the CEC, electricity-capacity constraints are delaying housing expansion at the Colusa Indian Community. The project is intended to test whether dynamic operating envelopes and other controls can increase hosting capacity, shorten interconnection timelines and defer or avoid conventional grid-upgrade costs. Its planned measurements include avoided infrastructure costs, interconnection timeline changes, ratepayer impacts and outage-resilience benefits.

The controller would use IEEE 2030.5 communications and a utility distributed-energy-resource-management-system emulator. The scope also calls for system integration and commissioning, flexible-interconnection simulation and validation, at least one year of measurement and verification, and a final evaluation of project benefits.

The CEC’s Oct. 19 business-meeting record identifies the BoxPower project as an item considered by the commission. The record says the consent calendar passed 4-0, while the grant packet’s individual vote fields are blank; the materials reviewed here do not independently document the final execution of EPC-26-011.

The proposal therefore establishes a planned test, not a measured result. Whether the system reduces upgrade costs or speeds housing-related interconnections will depend on the project’s later performance reports and the final agreement.