Microgrids are among the disruptive class of tech, that which challenges the status quo to improve society. However, lately a technology’s worth is based less on how well it disrupts and more on how well it responds to societal disruption.

With the disruption brought by COVID-19, products like teleconferencing, home delivery and telemedicine appear to be emerging as winners. So too are microgrids, as became apparent last week as more than 4,000 people joined our virtual conference — the largest gathering ever of those interested in microgrids. They came to understand — and help chart — a course for microgrids in this new era.

More than 50 energy leaders offered their take on the role of microgrids as society rethinks the old way of doing things — and where it really can’t lose power. Here are three key messages we took away.

Supply chains are thin. Flexibility is crucial
The pandemic reminded us that it’s impossible to prepare for every contingency, noted Erik Svenholm, vice president of non-wires alternatives at S&C Electric. “Flexibility and ability to quickly adjust are crucial.”

And that’s what microgrids offer with their multiple energy assets and intelligence that allows them to quickly shift what combination of solar, storage, generators, grid assets or other resources are best to employ at any given time based on grid reliability, weather, pricing and other metrics. This is something mere backup generators cannot do.

“For energy resiliency a backup generator solves a single issue a single way, has its own supply chain and inserts a new point of failure,” he said. “The best bet is to have flexible systems with multiple operational modes and pathways that have a better chance of exhibiting a useful operating mode regardless of what actually happens out there. For microgrids, to me, this points toward advanced systems with multiple energy sources and use cases.”

A growth in microgrids will drive a major rise in energy storage capacity over the next decade, according to a new report.

Guidehouse Insights (formerly Navigant Research) forecasts that cumulative capacity for new installed energy storage in microgrids is expected to exceed 36,938 MW globally by 2029. The installations, if fully realized, could generate about $40 billion in revenue worldwide.

“The markets for both energy storage and microgrids have developed significantly in the last few years thanks to major price decreases and accelerated adoption,” says Ricardo F. Rodriguez, research analyst with Guidehouse Insights. “Looking ahead, the global market for ESMG is expected to grow rapidly, with total annual capacity additions increasing from 650.4 MW in 2020 to 8,633.4 MW in 2029.”

Microgrids are increasing in adoption at military posts and in storm-ravaged areas looking for grid resiliency. A previous Navigant report indicated that about 575 microgrid projects moved into planning or deployment phrases in the first half of 2019 alone.

Microgrids can involve and integrate various generation resources including solar, combined heat and power (CHP) and diesel or gas-fired on-site power gensets. They do not require energy storage/battery assets, but the latter provides a backup and balancing solutions for the intermittency of the renewable resources.

In April 2019, ABB and Rolls-Royce announced a global partnership on microgrid technology and advanced automation. Together the two companies will offer a microgrid solution for utilities, commercial and industrial entities.

Through the partnership, Rolls-Royce’s MTU Onsite Energy brand power system solutions will be combined with ABBs Ability e-Mesh modular microgrid solution, control capability and remote service.

Energy storage systems are on the rise as a component of new microgrids or portable energy supplies that have traditionally used fossil fuel-based resources. But utilities need to undertake more widespread usage of storage on permanent microgrids, according to Guidehouse Insights.

Peter Asmus, who developed the “Energy Storage for Microgrids and Remote Power Systems” report with primary author Ricardo Rodriquez, said that utilities need to play a bigger role in developing permanent microgrids. Utilities have played a lead role in remote microgrid projects in places like Alaska, but are not in the lead on permanent microgrids in California or anywhere.

Utilities seem to be “waiting to see how it’s all going to play out,” he said in an interview with Microgrid Knowledge.

He also noted that California utilities rejected some proposals for storage on permanent microgrids because they didn’t think the microgrids could be up and running by this year’s fire season.

Such efforts as Pacific Gas & Electric’s December 2019 solicitation for 20 microgrids, totalling more than 500 MW, was disappointing to storage developers because it mostly used fossil-fuel sources and placed the microgrids at substations rather than customer sites. The utility in March said it had temporarily suspended, but not canceled the project.

Adding storage to microgrid projects, however, offers various benefits to the system, including enhancing the ability of the microgrid to manage renewable energy. The battery can store energy for discharge in the evening when the solar panels are no longer generating electricity, for example.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has announced it will develop a standardized platform to guide the modeling and design of secure and resilient DoD microgrids globally.

XENDEE, a microgrid software company, will deliver design solutions that allows the DoD to enhance energy reliability, along with the ability safely ride-out prolonged utility power outages. The technology will also allow the DoD to sustain mission critical operations using renewable energy resources and storage in an integrated microgrid system.

The technology will help reduce the time and cost associated with microgrid design and implementation. The DoD will expand the application of this technology to several installations, increasing energy resilience and mission readiness.

This new initiative will be supported by Distributed Energy Resources (DER) resilience and cybersecurity experts from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Arizona State University, California Polytechnical Institute, and Reilly Associates. Microgrid planning experts from the US Naval Facilities Command Expeditionary Warfare Center, Peterson Air Force Base, US Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, US Army Corps of Engineers, and US Army Garrison Bavaria will also aid in the effort.

The Santa Barbara Unified School District has issued a request for proposals for at least six school microgrids as part of a solar and resiliency project that encompasses 15 locations.

The solicitation comes as schools and other California institutions and businesses seek ways to ensure electric reliability following last year’s power outages enacted by utilities to prevent wildfires.

In addition to adding energy resiliency, the project is expected to lower the district’s electricity costs, reduce its carbon footprint, and add shade to campuses.

The school district seeks one firm to finance, design, permit, build, commission, own and operate, and maintain the energy infrastructure under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The design calls for microgrids with battery storage at six or more sites, as well as solar photovoltaics at 15 sites and PV-paired with battery energy. The project is expected to include about 4.5 MW of solar capacity and 3 MW/6 MWH of battery energy storage (if all of the sites install storage).

The sites include three high schools, four junior high schools, six elementary schools, a district office and a warehouse. The school microgrids, which would offer variable two to six hour islanding mode, are proposed for the high schools, one junior high and the warehouse.

The Clean Coalition, a California non-profit, partnered with Sage Energy Consulting on the RFP. The partners conducted the project feasibility analyses and design and solicitation execution and will work together on the selection of a developer to build, own, and operate the school microgrids.

Batteries combined with photovoltaics are providing power for a Covid-19 pop-up clinic at the Matamoros Migrant Camp of 3,000 asylum seekers in Mexico near the Texas border.

SimpliPhi Power has partnered with non-profit organisation Footprint Project to supply a clean energy microgrid to power the camp’s first mobile medical intensive care unit (ICU).

SimpliPhi’s 3.8kWh batteries are part of a mobile solar and energy storage trailer that serves as a primary power source for the ICU.

The pop-up ICU provides 20 beds with both diagnostic and treatment medical equipment and a system to deliver temperature control for the two-tent clinic.

The microgrid provides critical power while avoiding producing fumes such as those generated by diesel or gas generators, which would serve to further exacerbate the respiratory condition of patients already struggling to fight off Covid-19 infections.

The clean energy company notes the mobile microgrid also supports significant savings for the management team of the facility, avoiding wasting funding on monthly fuel costs averaging $2,000 (£1618) with a diesel generator.

Catherine Von Burg, SimpliPhi Power CEO, said: “Covid-19 knows no border, affecting all nationalities regardless of whether people live in a permanent dwelling or a tent.

“Renewable energy microgrids for humanitarian needs like the Matamoros migrant camp can play a critical role during this global pandemic, ensuring reliable, uninterrupted access to clean power, allowing medical teams to focus on treatment and medicine, not purchasing fuel over medical supplies.”

A microgrid tariff proposed by Hawaiian Electric (HECO) is receiving mixed reviews as the state attempts to break new ground in creating microgrid compensation.

Now before the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the utility proposed the tariff in the first phase of a regulatory effort to fulfill a microgrid law (Act 200) signed in July 2018 by Governor David Ige. The law seeks to establish greater structure around microgrid interconnection and the value of microgrid services through a tariff program (Docket No. 2018-0163).

The regulatory effort before the PUC is important to the microgrid industry because ambiguity about utility regulatory treatment is one of the main impediments to microgrid development, said Richard Stuebi, senior fellow, Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy, which had sent a note of support to the commission for its efforts.

“There is relatively little conceptual agreement on whether and how the local utility should be involved, and how the utility would be compensated for its involvement, in a prospective microgrid,” he said.

While a few precedents have been established, there is no systematic approach on how utility regulators should address microgrids, he added.

First-of-its-kind microgrid tariff
“Being the first of its kind and involving a thorough public process, the Hawaii microgrid tariff proceeding is being watched carefully by the US microgrid community, as it is likely to set a clear direction that other state regulatory authorities will evaluate,” Stuebi said.

The first phase of the docket looks only at emergency situations that would cause a microgrid to island, said Jennifer Potter, commissioner, Hawaii PUC.

“When we first started this, it was a big chunk to bite off,” she said. The first phase is fairly restrictive, and doesn’t look at grid services. And it doesn’t address microgrids interconnecting and use the utility grid as a backup power source. “That’s the next phase.”

In its filing, HECO proposed a $5/kW charge, on an annual basis, for microgrid operators who want to use the resources of the utility to coordinate dispatch and islanding, said Ashley Agcaoili, staff attorney at the Hawaii PUC. For example, for a 500 kW microgrid, the annual fee would be $2,500, she said.

A U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory is seeking market data about direct current lighting and DC building microgrid controllers to help guide its research efforts.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory issued requests for information from manufacturers and solution providers to understand the state of the two technologies and how they work together.

The responses will help guide PNNL’s research to advance DC lighting technology and DC building microgrids, with the goal of increasing energy efficiency and resilience while enabling Zero Energy Buildings, the national lab said.

In a DC building microgrid, on-site distributed resources like solar panels directly power DC devices, reducing or eliminating the need for equipment that converts power from alternating current to DC and associated energy losses, PNNL said.
LED lighting, a DC technology, is key to achieving an optimized DC building microgrid solution, according to the lab. “However, a deeper understanding of the benefits and barriers to adoption of these combined technologies is necessary to promote the technologies’ use,” PNNL said.

For each technology, PNNL wants information on the availability, types and characteristics of technology solutions as well as perspectives on the technologies’ benefits and adoption.

The lab is studying DC lighting and building microgrid technologies. The research aims to assess and characterize the availability of DC-based lighting technologies and associated equipment or services to integrate DC building loads with building-level photovoltaics and energy storage batteries, according to the lab.

For the RFI, PNNL defines a DC building microgrid controller as devices, equipment or solutions that connect DC building loads with DC building power sources such as PV or energy storage batteries and controls the flow of power between them. They should have the capability to interact with the electric grid to support islanding of the building microgrid.

The Sierra Club is urging New Jersey regulators to include microgrids as part of the state’s strategy for supporting energy efficiency and peak demand reduction.

The Sierra Club is urging New Jersey regulators to include microgrids as part of the state’s strategy for supporting energy efficiency and peak demand reduction.

The environmental group and others are also pushing the state to use energy storage to improve energy efficiency and peak demand cuts, according to comments filed with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

At issue is a proposal to revamp the state’s efficiency and demand reduction programs released by the BPU in March. The proposal grew out of the New Jersey’s 2018 Clean Energy Act, which calls for overhauling the state’s power system and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposal includes recommendations on program design and administration, cost recovery mechanisms, performance targets and metrics, program performance reviews, the evaluation, measurement and verification of programs and program effects, and filing and reporting requirements.

However, some groups want the state to go further.

Energy efficiency and microgrids
“Now is the time to initiate an expansion of energy efficiency and peak demand programs to address managing electric services for microgrids and electric vehicle charging stations,” the Sierra Club said in comments filed this month.

Microgrids will be needed to fulfill the state’s energy master plan, which calls for replacing fossil-fueled power plants, heating systems and vehicles, according to the environmental group.

“The proliferation of microgrids is an opportunity to execute a smooth transition to the Clean Energy Grid resulting in cost savings to customers, a reduction in emissions, and more control by consumers and grid operators to improve reliability and resiliency,” the Sierra Club said.

The immediate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic are brutally clear: Exhausted medics, empty supermarket shelves and lines at food banks. It’s also clear that the pandemic will reshape societies and economies in the longer term. What we struggle with, as we do whenever we try to forecast the future, is to know how to use today’s impacts to predict what that reshaping will look like.

A couple of macro points first. We should take a wide-angle view of what’s to come. As the New Yorker noted, previous pandemics have “sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean imagining wholly different futures. Many analysts are basing forecasts on the idea that the pandemic will exacerbate existing trends rather than create new ones.

So which trends should we pay attention to? I see two that are critical to food. The first is the ongoing backlash against globalization, which has led populist leaders — Trump, Bolsonaro, Putin — to back away from free-trade deals and promote inward-looking policies. The other is an awareness of the need to build more resilient systems, forced upon us in part by the knowledge that climate change will make extreme weather more frequent. Both forces likely will be accentuated by a pandemic that is restricting travel and exposing the brittleness of some supply chains.

I was mulling the impact of these forces when an email arrived from Stephan Dolezalek, an executive director at the Wheatsheaf Group, a $500 million venture fund with close to 30 investments in the food and ag space. Dolezalek has spent a long time looking at trends in his sector and has come to believe that we’re heading for a food system that “emulates the characteristics of a microgrid: Redundant, distributed, resilient, smaller scale and locally powered, yet connected to the larger world in ways that benefit it when safe but can be disconnected when not so.”

His forecast is based in part on his experience as a VC in other industries that have been upended by similar transitions. Computers used to fill rooms. They migrated to our desks, laps and now our pockets, a transition made possible by the creation of the decentralized computing network that brought you this email. Electricity is in the middle of its own transition to a more decentralized network, as smaller local facilities — think microgrids, residential solar, batteries — start taking on some of the load previously shouldered by large power plants.

The same thing is happening in food, Dolezalek argued. When we spoke by phone this week, his Exhibit A was the beer sector, where a multitude of small craft breweries is taking share from the big incumbents. (Beer sales fell 2 percent last year, but craft sales grew 4 percent to reach almost 14 percent of the U.S. market.)