At DistribuTECH 2015, if there was one technology that seemed to be ubiquitous and on almost every utility's radar, it is microgrids. For example, Duke Energy is seriously considering offering microgrids as a service and Siemens announced that its advanced distribution management software (ADMS) for utilities has been extended to support microgrids.
Existing microgrids are running primarily at military bases (32%) and universities and research labs (24%). A recent report from GTM Research North American Microgrids 2014: The Evolution of Localized Energy Optimization projects that American microgrid capacity will nearly double over the next three years. Microgrids for critical infrastructure (schools, hospitals, universities, wastewater treatment plants), mainly in cities and small communities, is projected to grow fastest by number of projects in the next five years, driven by government environmental policy.
Microgrids are currently mostly combined heat and power systems. In the future they will be able to integrate renewable energy and distribution networks assets. For example,
- CPS Energy is assembling a test facility for a three year smart grid testing program. It will have 30,000 customers, 15 circuits, solar generation, smart inverters, battery storage and the ability to disconnect from the grid to form a microgrid.
- Duke Energy has announced the next phase of their interoperability project COW II which will be a microgrid system which will integrate distributed renewable resources such as solar PV and battery storage with a field message bus-based distributed intelligence platform with wireless communications to a variety of distribution system devices.
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