Uruguayan schools use mobile energy storage containers connected to the grid

Does Uruguay have a power grid?

The map of Uruguay’s electrical grid today is starkly different from that of 2008, when the majority of power was generated at a few hydroelectric dams north of Montevideo and the rest at a handful of fossil fuel plants in the capital. It’s now possible for the entire grid to run several hours a day entirely on wind power.

How much money does Uruguay need to transform the grid?

But given that Uruguay’s GDP was just $41.95 billion in 2010, the government was wary of funneling an estimated $7 billion of public money into the huge renewable energy projects that would have to be undertaken in order to transform the grid. Instead, the leftist party chose to ask private companies to take on much of the financial risk.

Can mobile energy storage improve power grid resilience?

As mobile energy storage is often coupled with mobile emergency generators or electric buses, those technologies are also considered in the review. Allocation of these resources for power grid resilience enhancement requires modeling of both the transportation system constraints and the power grid operational constraints.

How does Uruguay get its electricity?

To this day, Uruguay continues to rely heavily on its dams, including the imposing Salto Grande on the Río Uruguay, whose power is shared with Argentina, and several on the Río Negro. For decades, electricity from those dams and from generators running on gas and oil imported largely from Argentina and Brazil met Uruguayans’ energy needs.