To cut microgrid costs, industry experts offer five strategies: optimize the energy resources to ensure they provide the most benefits, consider cost- and time-saving design tweaks, avoid overengineering, take advantage of standard packages and look into financing that involves no upfront costs. Patrick Lee, president and CEO of PXiSE Energy … [Read more...]
Think you’re ready for a microgrid? Answer these questions first
April 8, 2022 By
This article explores key questions about microgrids and is written for those beginning the microgrid journey. It is part of Microgrid Knowledge's About Microgrids series. *** When Peter Asmus began helping three communities create community microgrids in California, a number of challenges cropped up. First of all, proponents of the … [Read more...]
Monash University Offers Help in Developing Microgrids with New Toolbox
August 27, 2021 By
One Step Off The Grid’s Sophie Vorrath describes a microgrid toolbox offered by Monash University in Australia to help those trying to develop projects. The team behind a groundbreaking solar and battery storage microgrid installed at the Clayton campus of Victoria’s Monash University has developed an online toolbox to help other businesses, … [Read more...]
Is It Time to Dust Off Your Microgrid Implementation Plan?
May 26, 2021 By
Emily LeJeune, manager-federal market, S&C Electric shares the five critical stages that should be included in every microgrid implementation plan. More microgrids are being used to support the electric grid each year because they are flexible solutions for a variety of energy challenges. Despite their growing prevalence, microgrids are … [Read more...]
Go Slow to Go Fast When Writing a Microgrid RFP
May 24, 2021 By
When writing a microgrid RFP (requests for proposals), it’s important to go slow in order to go fast. This means that it’s critical to do as much upfront work as possible before issuing the microgrid RFP. “Adding extra time at the front end and thoughtfulness into the RFP with as much detail as possible can help you finish a more successful … [Read more...]
How to Model Electricity Bill Savings for Microgrid Developers
May 17, 2021 By
Rob Hong, co-founder and CEO of Sapling Financial Consultants shares insights on how microgrid developers can illustrate electricity bill savings to their customers. One of the most important pieces of the sale process for microgrid developers is to show how customers will realize cost savings compared to their current arrangement with their … [Read more...]
How to Weather Hurricane Season with a Resilient Microgrid
April 28, 2021 By
Mark Kille, business development manager at Mesa Solutions, provides tips on how businesses can survive hurricane season with a resilient microgrid. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, hurricanes are becoming more frequent and more destructive, causing longer power outages and making hurricane preparedness more … [Read more...]
Why and How to Bring Microgrids to Small Town America
March 26, 2021 By
This spring, the Poudre Valley Electric Association (PVREA), which provides power to northern Colorado, plans to test a microgrid for a small town that has experienced outages because of car accidents on curvy roads, extreme weather, and, in September, a fire that left the town without power for 52 hours. The microgrid, which will replace … [Read more...]
How to Get off the Grid Through Efforts Fueled by the Natural Gas Distribution System
December 21, 2020 By
Alternative energy options are growing at a rapid pace. And it can be hard to wade through the variety of choices. A new report from Mesa Solutions aims to provide an approach that provides an option to get off the grid, while retaining stability, cost efficiency and reliability. The report is titled, "How to Get Off the Electric Grid, … [Read more...]
How to Make FERC 2222 Work for Microgrids
November 20, 2020 By
FERC 2222 presents promise — but also challenges — for the US microgrid industry, according to energy policy experts who spoke this week at Microgrid 2020 Global, a virtual onference that attracted more than 4,300 people. The federal order, expected to pave the way for aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs) to compete with … [Read more...]
