Feasibility Study Explores Potential of Life-Saving Solution for Medically Vulnerable Individuals in Taos

During power outages, Taos locals who rely on in-home electric medical devices like ventilators, oxygen concentrators, or insulin pumps are at serious—sometimes life-threatening—risk of health complications. However, there are no systems to communicate with and support these residents or even to know who they are. So, a Kit Carson Electric Cooperative employee reached out to LOR with an idea: hire a consultant to identify medically vulnerable residents, make home visits, and utilize information collected during those visits—regarding residential conditions and surrounding infrastructure, as well as residents’ self-identified needs and priorities—to determine the feasibility of creating a Virtual Power Plant that could provide a backup power source when needed.

LOR’s funding will cover the cost of retaining a project manager and a medical consultant and the costs associated with facilitating five community meetings and at least twenty individual home visits to collect data that will guide the subsequent stages of this ambitious project, with the ultimate goal of mitigating potential health risks associated with future power disruptions in Taos and beyond.