Nine Lessons Learned from Successful Community Microgrids

While most existing microgrids serve a single entity (e.g., a university, military base, or commercial/industrial customer), a community microgrid can serve more than 1,000 energy users. While the potential benefits of community microgrids are numerous for all involved parties,to date, very few community microgrids are operating or planned worldwide.

Only a small number of the more than 2,200 microgrids worldwide are “community microgrids” – meeting the needs of communities and their citizens and local businesses, rather than discrete entities, such as individual universities, military bases, or commercial/industrial customers.

Despite their limited number, existing community microgrid installations provide a wealth of leading practices. Awareness of successful projects, and lessons learned from them, can help microgrid developers and service providers make informed decisions when considering or embarking on community microgrid projects.

This white paper documents a comprehensive review of these community microgrids, which identified these practices. The lessons learned documented in this white paper can help microgrid developers and service providers work closely with communities, utilities, regulatory agencies, and other stakeholders to accelerate growth of the community microgrid market.