It is not secret anymore, that the way we are using energy cause damage to our planet. In 2021 we expect to consume 40x energy compare to 1900.

 Due to the global warming we will demand 3x energy by 2050 compare today.

To adjust to the new energy reality, organizations are under growing pressure to participate in the globalization effort reduce emission and avoid global warming. Over the past decades the cost of electricity distribution increased by 50% in the U.S. In order to confront the global warming, states are setting mandates for 100% cleat electricity , covering nearly one-third of the U.S.C&I and companies are forecasted to see over $100B in annual losses from power outages through the end of the decade.

One of the solution will be to bring electric and digital together – Microgrid

According to DOE  a microgrid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from the grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or island mode.

The traditional  centralized utility grid is a big interconnected network that takes energy from large far away energy generation paltforms and transmit it over long distances to consumers.As technologies andpolitics continue to evolve, communities and business can choose to supply their own enrgy locally by building their own microgrid.

As energy become vermore critical n our daily live, Microgrids will enable us to shift from central power generation to local, flexible and reliable form of sustainable power and thermal energy 

Microgrids won’t be a core part of the clean-energy transition until they serve all three grid needs — greener, more reliable, more resilient.

Right now, most microgrids around the world rely on diesel generators, which are polluting and loud, so they’re not very green. (In the US, the primary sources are CHP and natural gas.) They only turn on once the grid is down, so they don’t help with day-to-day reliability. Of the three grid needs, most serve only resilience, and only for those lucky enough to be connected to one

As basic as most of them are today, microgrids hold great promise for the future. Technology is rapidly expanding the possibilities.

  • Electricity use is becoming more controllable and adaptable, as every system and appliance learns to communicate over the internet.
  • Small-scale and community-scale electricity generators are getting cheaper, cleaner, and more diverse; they now include solar panels, small-scale wind, efficient natural gas generators and fuel cells, CHP, and more.  
  • Energy storage is also becoming cheaper and more diverse, from various kinds of batteries and fuel cells to thermal storage in hot water or ice. (The Stone Edge Farm microgrid in Sonoma boasts five separate forms of storage.) Every bit of new storage helps to smooth out the variations in solar and wind, allowing more to be absorbed.
  • Software, AI, and machine learning are enabling intelligent integration of all these diverse resources.

Smart design and software can create microgrids specifically designed to integrate distributed renewable energy, or microgrids designed to provide “six nines” (99.9999 percent) reliability, or microgrids designed for maximum resilience. There are even “nested” microgrids within microgrids.

Distributed microgrids present a business model challenge to investor-owned utilities and transmission systems as these microgrids are increasingly able to compete in wholesale energy, capacity, and ancillary services markets, and displace utility loads and utility revenue. Utilities are increasingly building their own renewable generation, often with a microgrid architecture to meet the demands for new generation and grid reliability required by regulators, but utilities are being asked to do much more than compete with distributed power. ISOs, RTOs, utilities, and regulators are working to transition electric grids to allow fair competition to provide reliable low-cost power. Utilities were once a natural monopoly. Now, they are being asked to help build out an efficient, workable, low-carbon distributed system, and figure out how they will fit into that system.

ARC Advisory Group market studies of microgrids and grid-scale battery suppliers show these markets growing, with large compound annual growth rates. The traditional grid hardware, software, and service providers are very strong suppliers to the microgrid market. Many smaller suppliers have also emerged in the nano-grid market for residential PV systems with battery storage.

Worldwide, lithium batteries have established a strong lead in the market for grid-scale batteries in part by the economies of scale. PJM Interconnection, demonstrated that lithium batteries can be used effectively for grid frequency control applications. As the markets for frequency control get saturated, there are many other markets where new grid-scale battery applications can compete.

Basically, a grid-scale battery with a modern power inverter/converter is an instant microgrid all by itself. Coupling microgrids to meet demand-side flexibility is a problem that must be solved. This will require new technology, new regulations, and new business models, and the smart grid to perform new tasks it was designed to do but has never done before at scale.

The Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI’s) issued in 2018 the U.S. National Electrification Assessment report , describing the idea that effective integration of energy supplier and user networks can and will lead to more reliable, flexible, and affordable energy services

The power industry has always had the choice to integrate the user side of the grid to reduce peaks and smooth loads. Pumped-hydro storage was built in some cases to avoid cycling nuclear plants; the new distributed generation grid also needs that type of operational flexibility. So, what is different now that we need to integrate to the demand side? The difference is the system now has unprecedented network communications, digital technologies, mobile devices, smart meters, smart grid standards, and the electrification of transport and building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). These enable far greater flexibility to adjust demand on the user side of the grid. While this is arguably the most complex systems integration problem society faces today, ARC believes all the technology needed to succeed is in place.

While natural gas has an important role to play, The Economics of Clean Energy Portfolios—published in 2018 by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)—warns of the high costs of a rush to gas generation. RMI provides business-model research to show renewable energy, including wind and solar, and distributed energy resources, including batteries, have fallen precipitously in price in the last 10 years. At the same time, developer and grid operator experience with these resources has demonstrated their ability to provide many, if not all, of the grid services typically provided by thermal power plants. This renewable electric generation is a major driving force for microgrids.

Electric grids are increasingly deregulated, but deregulation has a long way to go before small players can compete in all the markets where large generators or large loads currently do. Grids are already using local marginal pricing (LMP) to drive generation and loads, but this price is meaningless to small users. Even with smart meters and smart grid standards, small microgrids and nano-grid operations have not reached the point where they are driven by the real-time local price of power.

More homes will have solar PV and batteries, electric vehicles, heat pump hot water heaters, and electric-driven HVAC systems, but how can homeowners with flexible loads will provide services to the grid?  How can they be compensated for the grid services they might provide? PV battery systems do not support power export, electric vehicles do not support V2G (vehicle-to-grid) or remote charging applications, heat pump hot water heaters do not support scheduling, end-users cannot buy Wi-Fi enabled residential circuit breakers that support grid price scheduling.