Fully electric Oregon elementary school aims for resilience with microgrid design

River Grove Elementary School in Lake Oswego, Ore., was designed to be fully electric and resilient to natural disasters such as seismic events, storms, and wildfire. The roughly 78,000-sf school in a Portland suburb will feature a microgrid—a small-scale power grid that can operate independently from the area’s electric grid.

Design of the microgrid system was developed through a collaboration between the school district and the local utility provider. River Grove will be one of the first American schools to be constructed with a microgrid.

The structure is designed to a higher seismic factor as a Category IV building to serve as a resource for the local community in the event of an earthquake or other natural disaster. Portions of the building will continue to function during a prolonged power outage thanks to the large photovoltaic array and battery energy storage system.

The building has a sophisticated heating, cooling, and ventilation system, a critical feature in an area experiencing soaring temperatures during heatwaves in recent years. The region has also been impacted by smoke-filled air from forest fires and ice storms causing power outages for weeks.

River Grove is a replacement of a 1967 elementary school that existed on the same site. The previous 68,846 sf school was fully demolished, and students moved off-site to another school during construction.

The new school will provide classrooms, extended learning areas, an innovation lab, music room, stage, library, administration offices, gymnasium, kitchen, an outdoor covered play area, outdoor learning spaces, and play fields. The building is designed for a capacity of 600. The previous facility had a capacity of 575.

Construction kicked off in June 2022, with completion expected for the school’s opening in Fall 2024.

Owner and/or Developer: Lake Oswego School District
Design Architect: Arcadis
Architect of Record: Arcadis
MEP Engineer: Glumac
Structural Engineer: KPFF
General Contractor: Triplett Wellman