BEM Systems, Inc, (BEM) is excited and honored to be this year’s recipient of the 2020 Honor Award – Non-Transportation Project for its work on NJ TRANSITGRID Microgrid Central Facility from the American Council of Engineering Companies New Jersey (ACECNJ). The award will be presented at the 50th Engineering Excellence Awards Banquet to be held on July 14, 2021. The TRANSITGRID project will also be considered for the ACEC National Award which is announced at its Annual Banquet in Washington DC on April 27, 2021.
NJ TRANSITGRID was conceived in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 when over 250,000 customers were left without mass transit for over two weeks due to the lack of power from the public grid. The $546 million NJ TRANSITGRID Microgrid Central Facility project will advance because of a grant awarded by the FTA, through FTA’s Emergency Relief Program. This first-of-its-kind mass transit “microgrid” is designed to provide decentralized reliable power during times of emergencies to the core segment of NJ TRANSIT’s and Amtrak’s critical service territory. The microgrid would be resilient, making the transportation system substantially less vulnerable to power outages from extreme weather events thereby providing reliable and safe service to its customers.
BEM was instrumental in assisting NJ TRANSIT in applying for federal funding under the competitive FTA grant process authorized by Congress following Superstorm Sandy. The application process required demonstrating that, given the increased risk to the commercial power grid due to climate change, supplying a reliable and resilient source of traction power to this critical transit region was essential to carry out NJ TRANSIT’s core mission for its commuters. BEM was then retained to manage all the environmental aspects of the permitting process and related studies including the publication of a comprehensive Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which resulted in the FTA approving a Combined FEIS/Record of Decision (ROD). With the publication of the ROD, NJ TRANSIT is now progressing with the procurement phase for taking the project from final design through construction.
To support the Governor’s clean energy initiatives, NJ TRANSIT is re-imagining the NJ TRANSITGRID Microgrid Central Facility through their procurement process, encouraging proposers to incorporate renewable and other green technologies that, to the extent possible, work with existing and known site constraints. The microgrid will be designed and constructed to accommodate carbon-neutral power generation options, such as Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) (made from food waste or other organic materials) and fuel cells (using the chemical energy of hydrogen or another fuel to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity as they become more commercially feasible. Once constructed, the NJ TRANSITGRID Microgrid Central Facility will provide highly reliable electric power to support commuter rail service in a core segment of NJ TRANSIT’s critical service territory on portions of the Northeast Corridor (NEC), the Morris & Essex Line (M&E), and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail (HBLR).
“BEM Team’s diligence and technical expertise under NJ TRANSIT’s direction resulted in FTA’s Region 2 office issuing its first-ever Combined Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for this project on April 24, 2020,” said Mr. John Geitner, Senior Director of NJ TRANSIT. BEM is thankful for the opportunity provided by NJ TRANSIT to manage and prepare the EIS for this first-ever transportation microgrid in the country.
