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By Jesse Berst
The answer, of course, is that most interconnection standards mandate that the solar inverter be disabled when the grid goes down. That's to avoid, among other things, electrocuting utility workers who are working to restore faults. But an excellent article from Rocky Mountain Institute argues that we can safeguard utility workers while still allowing solar panel owners to tap into their power when the grid is down. Meanwhile, as if to prove the point, a PBS outlet has produced a short article (accompanying an RMI video) highlighting the microgrid at the University of California, San Diego. During the San Diego blackout of 2011, UCSD was "an island of light in the surrounding darkness" thanks to its microgrid.
If you aren't studying microgrids already, if you don't have a pilot planned already, this would be a good time to get started. We're still a few years from the tipping point when microgrids become mainstream, but it's not too early to predict that they will be an inevitable part of our electric future.
The U.S. military, of course, has been a leading force in the move to microgrids. A new report from Pike Research suggests the Department of Defense’s efforts may be the strongest driver for the overall microgrid market today.
“In addition to reducing the amount of fossil fuels consumed to create electricity, by networking generators as a system to maximize efficiency, microgrids have a number of other benefits of value to the military,” says senior research analyst Peter Asmus. “They can also be used to help integrate renewable energy resources (such as wind and solar) at the local distribution grid level. Simultaneously, microgrids enable military bases – both stationary and forward operating bases – to sustain operations, no matter what is happening on the larger utility grid or in the theater of war.”
The Pike report forecasts the total capacity of DOD microgrids will surpass 600 megawatts by 2018, a 50 percent increase over 2012.
You might also be interested in…
Smart grid execs zero in on energy storage, DG and microgrids
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Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com, the industry's oldest and largest smart grid site. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the U.S. and abroad, he also serves on advisory committees for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Institute for Electric Efficiency. He often provides strategic consulting to large corporations and venture-backed startups. He is a member of the advisory boards of GridGlo and Calico Energy Services.
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