Opportunities for innovation in microgrids:
- Modular microgrids with plug & play components and much less custom design & engineering
- James Kirtley sees an opportunity for using sensors to let microgrids determine in real-time when to enter Island Mode due to instabilities or faults on the main grid Jim almost started a company doing similar for the transmission grid. (link)
- He also sees an opportunity for better load management, and for electronic control systems for induction motors that help them stabilize a microgrid
- The supply chain for switchgear equipment is a major hurdle today.
- According to Francisco Morocz, major challenges today include:
- Overall microgrid robustness to individual equipment failures. This is primarily driven by the instability and poor quality of inverters for batteries and solar, which really weren’t built for 24/7 operation
- the need to frequently calibrate the battery management system to get accurate SoC information
- Francisco sees opportunities to better integrate:
- External data (power prices, weather, etc)
- Heat
- Load management (typically via APIs as opposed to modbus)
- The lack of standardization is a major challenge, especially for DC microgrids
- Renata Bakousseva recommended speaking to Medhi Ganji at PG&E
Learnings to date
- Microgrids:
- Are good for resiliency of critical infrastructure
- Enable the participation in Demand Response
- Allow for greater integration of intermittent resources
- Diesel backups are seldom operated, but purchasing them and maintaining them is a hassle
- Are a good place to deploy new technologies in power supply, distribution, and demand (easier than deploying with utilities)
- High cost is a challenge
- Could be the answer to address long transmission interconnection queues, by enabling a site to meet the majority of its own electricity need (the enabling factor is really onsite generation and onsite batteries)
- SMES could help improve short-term stability with voltage and frequency support
- Multi-microgrids are a promising idea, but the US regulatory environment makes it hard today
- Microgrid opportunities include:
- Knowing when to enter Island Mode
- Better load management
- Electronic controls for induction motors
- External data feeds
- Utility interconnection is a challenge for new microgrid projects
- Microgrids don’t yet integrate well with (i) heat (ii) load management (especially server loads)
- Microgrids are not very robust to individual equipment failures
- Designing, permitting, and building a microgrid is really complex, custom, and time-intensive
- 💡 Design software and marketplace for new microgrid customers
- The stability challenge of switching a microgrid to Island Mode is mostly solved
- 💡 Microgrid controls that integrate nontraditional loads like EV charging and IT server load
- 💡 Self-healing microgrids that are somehow robust to individual equipment failures
Note: Myles Kelly (myleskelly@mitre.org) at MITRE does interesting work at the intersection of data centers and microgrids. In his opinion, the limiting factor isn’t so much in operating a gigawatt-class microgrid but rather in building this huge onsite power generation.