Schneider Electric is taking another step in its focus on standardized microgrids by announcing a new partnership with gen-set maker Mainspring Energy.
French-based global energy management firm Schneider Electric, which first announced its new EcoStruxure Microgrid Flex offering last year at the 2023 Microgrid Knowledge Conference in Anaheim, is combining its solution with Mainspring’s Linear Generator. The partnership was announced at CeraWeek in Houston on Wednesday.
The EcoStruxure Microgrid offering is aimed squarely at commercial and industrial customers. Mainspring’s generator offers fuel flexibility and resiliency, the companies say.
“Commercial and industrial facilities are dealing with increasing demands for electricity,” Bala Vinayagam, senior vice president for the microgrid line of business at Schneider Electric, said in a statement.
“At the same time, organizations needing power have decarbonization goals,” Vinayagam added. “The Mainspring Linear Generator has the potential to serve a vital role in the transition to net zero. Customers are provided with a pioneering microgrid solution that can generate on-site power, adapt to an evolving grid landscape, and help them meet their decarbonization goals.”
California-based Mainspring Energy launched the Linear Generator commercially in 2020. The equipment reportedly enables high expansion of reacted gases at relatively low temperatures and can convert linear motion into electricity. The low temperature, reactive technology is designed to keep NOx emissions at nearly zero levels.
The ignition-free, fuel-flexible system reportedly can ramp quickly while running on gas, biogas, green ammonia, or hydrogen. Pacific Gas & Electric, Lineage Logistics and NextEra Energy Resources are among the early customers for the generator.
Mainspring Energy won the BloombergNEF (New Energy Finance) Pioneers Award last year for its generator work to accelerate deployment of clean hydrogen. The company’s cofounders began development of linear generator technology nearly 20 years ago at Stanford University’s Advanced Energy Systems Laboratory.
The Standardized Approach to Bring Microgrid Costs Down
Schneider Electric’s business plan argues that a standardized, modular approach to microgrid development can overcome long interconnection queue delays and bring costs down somewhat.
Despite their promising ability to provide a bridge at the confluence of sustainability and resiliency, the nearly 700 microgrids nationwide only provide about 0.3% of U.S. electricity, Jana Gerber, North American microgrid president at Schneider Electric, pointed out in a recent perspectives article for Microgrid Knowledge.
The complexity of DERs can prove inordinately expensive, with microgrid projects often costing between $2 million and $4 million per MW, well above normal centralized power generation levelized costs.
“However, through standardization and emerging financial models like energy-as-a-service, organizations can harness the power of microgrids without incurring cost overruns,” Gerber wrote.
