(WNY News Now) – Jamestown – Jamestown Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Electric Transmission and Distribution Manager Kristofor G. Sellstrom appeared as one of three speakers in a recent American Public Power Association (APPA) webinar attended by 150 participants.
The APPA is a national organization representing 2,000 public power companies. The BPU is the largest public power company with generation among 47 municipal utilities in New York State and was one of the first utilities to join the APPA.
The webinar, Public Power Lessons Learned from the Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership Program (GRIP), highlighted three utility speakers from the 58 organizations whose applications were selected in the first round of grants under the GRIP program.
The Federal grant program is designed to support investments in grid resilience, smart grid technology and grid innovation. The first round of grants, announced in October, totaled $3.5 billion. Approximately $10.5 billion is expected to be granted in the second round of funding. The DOE in late October announced that the Jamestown BPU was selected to receive $17,377,945 to advance the “Jamestown Community Microgrid Project.” The BPU project includes a $5,792,648 match, to employ a microgrid, electric vehicle charging, battery storage and replacement of underground cabling. The project will enable the core area of downtown Jamestown to either remain in electrical and thermal service or experience only a brief outage in
a disruptive event if the microgrid is in place.
Such a microgrid would provide electricity to the Downtown Jamestown area, including facilities providing essential services such as the Jamestown Police, Fire and Public Works Departments, the BPU Electric and Water Resources Divisions, Alstar EMS Ambulance Service, UPMC Chautauqua Hospital, the Urgent Care Medical Facility and several large community buildings that could host shelters in case of a prolonged emergency event. The proposed microgrid would take advantage of the BPU’s existing gas turbine, its network of underground circuits, the district heating system and the addition of a black start battery storage system. Sellstrom, Daniel Crowley of EPB, Chattanooga, TN, and Lawrence Luong of the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District (SMUD) outlined successful application strategies to help other utilities prepare for future funding opportunities through the GRIP program.
ELECTRIC
DISTRICT HEAT
WATER
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SOLID WASTE
Sellstrom explained to the audience members that the BPU first submitted a concept paper about the project in December, 2022, and next was invited to submit a full proposal, due in April of 2023. His presentation included a timeline for the grant application, a description of the BPU’s team approach and initial lessons learned.
He explained how small teams with responsive and innovative leadership can bring together ideas quickly and with some effort can be competitive in these national programs that have carve-outs for smaller utilities. Sellstrom stated how important partnerships with the City of Jamestown team and their Grant Writer Paula Pichon and various non-profit organizations, along with the BPU’s internal engineering, business development team and support from the General Manager and board of directors, were to the successful application. Further, Sellstrom mentioned how it takes a community working together with shared long-term visions to accomplish these generational projects and hopes this is just another step along Jamestown’s path toward sustainability and prosperity.
“I believe that existing efforts toward encouraging diversification of manufacturing into climate technology sectors through the Jamestown BPU’s RetoolWNY intuitive,” noted Sellstrom, “Coupled with the goal of revitalizing and expanding manufacturing and workforce development in our community, was critical to the success of the proposal.”
A Jamestown native and a graduate of the University of Vermont, Sellstrom started at the BPU as a Junior Engineer in 2011 and earned his Masters of Business Administration from Penn State University/Behrend College in 2016. The engineer obtained his Professional Engineering license while working as the BPU Energy and Gas Resources Manager, after which he became a senior engineer before entering his role as Transmission and Distribution Manager Sellstrom has served as Vice Chair and Chair of the APPA Customer Connections Energy Innovation Planning Committee and as Co-Chair of both the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation and the Jamestown Young Professionals. A member of the Chautauqua County
Chamber Board, Sellstrom was selected as Jamestown Chamber of Commerce Young Community Leader of the Year in 2016 and was admitted into the Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society. Sellstrom also served on the Jamestown Local Development Corporation and as a panel member for the United Way, and recently has joined the Chautauqua County Watershed Conservancy board.
Sellstrom resides in Jamestown with his wife Simone and three children.
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