The Art of the Possible for Delivering Lower Costs and Resilience With Microgrids of All Sizes
While microgrids provide less than 1% of the overall generation for any U.S. state, many companies and organizations are trying to understand the environmental, economic and grid-boosting possibilities of deploying microgrids.
That was the message from panelists during a teleconference, "Microgrids in Action: Onsite Energy Strategies for Reliability and Savings” organized by the Department of Energy (DOE) Onsite Energy Technical Assistance Partnerships.
Interest in microgrids from broad range of facility owners
“People are trying to understand what is the art of the possible,” said panelist Cameron Brooks, executive director of Think Microgrid, a non-profit that advocates for microgrids before U.S. regulators and policymakers. “That’s true at utility companies, commercial facilities, schools and communities. There are a number of different solutions, and they’re all worth exploring,”
Currently, organizations face the challenges of an increasing number of extreme weather events and an aging grid that’s becoming more brittle, both of which contribute to higher numbers of outages. In addition, power costs are rising in response to higher demand from electrification and data center deployments, he said.
As a starting point, cities, states and local governments could develop microgrid roadmaps identifying critical facilities that might benefit from the resilience microgrids provide, Brooks said.
Right now, between 4,000 and 5,000 microgrids have been deployed in the U.S. But along with other distributed resources, they could do much more, he said.
In 2035, microgrids will be building blocks of grid, according to Think Microgrid
“There’s a vision articulated by the DOE’s microgrid research program that sees distributed energy and resources at the edge of the grid capable of providing half of electricity needs,” Brooks said. In 2035, microgrids will be the core building block of a modern grid, according to Think Microgrid’s 2024 scorecard.
That vision assumes that distributed energy resource (DER) penetration would be significantly increased over the next decade, reaching 30% to 50% of total generation capacity, he added.
Microgrids and DERs are especially important in the context of rising electricity costs. While producing and storing power is becoming less expensive, distribution and transmission costs are rising. Microgrids can avoid those cost increases if they’re deployed locally because they don’t rely on expensive, long-distance, high-voltage transmission.
A big challenge is antiquated policy that hamstrings microgrids, Brooks said. Existing policies are based on old assumptions and don’t reflect the quickly changing energy landscape. The Think Microgrid scorecard examines new policy activity from utility commissions, legislatures and state agencies, while also focusing on ongoing barriers to microgrid deployment. Colorado, Texas, Maine and Connecticut received the highest marks in the scorecard.
No-cost resources for onsite energy developers
Also during the teleconference, Jonathan Whelan, director at the U.S. DOE Technical Assistance Partnership (TAP) Western Region, described how his office can provide technical assistance, at no cost, to microgrid developers working on high-energy-use projects and industrial facility owners aiming to lower costs and provide resilience.
“A big part of our program is driven by trying to reduce energy costs for American manufacturers and make American industry more competitive in the global marketplace,” Whelan said. A second goal is securing energy resilience.
The TAP program will assist at the early stage level, focusing on which generation technologies can be beneficial to a project. The program will also provide “high-level” cost-benefit analysis, he said. It also offers design and development, suggests equipment options, conducts third-party reviews of projects and “weighs in from an unbiased perspective,” he said.
That includes reviewing the specifications that go into a request for proposals and the proposal an entity might receive. And after a project is underway, the agency will offer input on how the system's performance might be improved.
An example: microgrid project to provide water district resilience
Also during the teleconference, Mohammad Ali, project management advisor at Opterra, a subsidiary of Engie that works with public institutions on energy issues, described the Yucaipa Valley Water District’s microgrid project designed to power the district’s entire water and waterwater treatment facilities during outages.
The water district is nearing completion on one site and will commission three sites next year, he said. The district is working on utility upgrades right now.
The project includes 3.2 MW of natural gas, 7 MW of solar and 13 MWh of energy storage. It was funded through a 30% federal investment tax credit, along with a 10% energy communities bonus that was available under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The solar and electric vehicle tax credits are being rolled back by the Trump administration.
The water district also received $7 million through California’s self-generating incentive programs grant. The district is anticipated to reap $82 million in savings over 30 years, Ali said.
Engie North America will build, own and operate the system and sell energy and energy services through a 28-year power purchase agreement with a fixed price.
More microgrids should be deployed to yield such benefits, Brooks said.
“We don’t have nearly as many microgrids out there as we think there could be,” he said.
About the Author
Lisa Cohn
Contributing Editor
I focus on the West Coast and Midwest. Email me at [email protected]
I’ve been writing about energy for more than 20 years, and my stories have appeared in EnergyBiz, SNL Financial, Mother Earth News, Natural Home Magazine, Horizon Air Magazine, Oregon Business, Open Spaces, the Portland Tribune, The Oregonian, Renewable Energy World, Windpower Monthly and other publications. I’m also a former stringer for the Platts/McGraw-Hill energy publications. I began my career covering energy and environment for The Cape Cod Times, where Elisa Wood also was a reporter. I’ve received numerous writing awards from national, regional and local organizations, including Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Willamette Writers, Associated Oregon Industries, and the Voice of Youth Advocates. I first became interested in energy as a student at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, where I helped design and build a solar house.
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