The Brains Behind the Brain of the Microgrid: Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories

Jan. 8, 2018
Bob Morris, SEL’s chief engineering services officer, offers insight into the microgrid controller, what it does, why it’s important and what people often misunderstand about the technology.

A lot of disagreement exists about what constitutes a microgrid. But there are two things people generally agree on. First, a microgrid can island or isolate itself from the central grid. Second, they are governed by a microgrid controller that acts as a management brain and distinguishes the system from being just a “dumb” amalgamation of power generators at a site.

Bob Morris, SEL’s chief engineering services officer

It’s that brain — and related equipment — that Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) provides. Like most brains, it is complicated.

In an interview Bob Morris, SEL’s chief engineering services officer, offered insight into the microgrid controller, what it does, why it’s important and what people often misunderstand about the technology.

Morris is particularly well-suited to offer this insight, given that he has 23 years of experience at SEL, a company that has been providing microgrids for industrial sites even before they were called microgrids.

“They were just called islands before microgrid became a popular term. We’ve been working on those for 15 years or so,” Morris said.

A controller’s software does many things, such as managing the microgrid’s resources to achieve the owner’s goals, which might be maximize electric reliability, harness best energy pricing, integrate renewables or reduce emissions. Whatever they are programmed to do, and whatever they are called, controllers address an underlying challenge of physics faced by a microgrid: a lack of inertia.

The inertia problem

In contrast, the U.S. electric grid has plenty of inertia in the form of a mass of large spinning generators that take care of imbalances. As Morris explained, should electricity consumers (load) suddenly demand more power than the system is producing at any given moment, these spinning generators can quickly make up the difference and keep supply meeting demand.

“If load increases beyond the present generation, they pull some energy from those spinning masses. The governors from those generators will add more fuel to the prime mover and eventually the generators will start putting out power. It is that inertia in the generators that rides through those small disturbances,” he said.

A microgrid, however, is different. There is not a lot of inertia in its generation system. If there is a power outage on the central grid, and the microgrid islands and begins relying solely on its own generators to serve its customers, it does not have the many spinning generators of the central grid to fall back upon.

That’s where the microgrid controller comes into play.

“The challenge with microgrids is that there is not a lot of inertia in the generation system, so the dynamics are much faster — they are not as forgiving as the electric grid,” he said. “To keep them stable, you need a control system that will respond very rapidly, one that has been preprogrammed.”

Imagine a university with a microgrid. A storm comes through and creates a cascading outage on the central grid.  To protect itself from the outage, the university’s microgrid islands and directs its on-site combined heat and power (CHP) system to provide electricity for the campus. Perhaps the CHP plant is not sized to serve the entire campus. So to keep the system in balance, the controller begins to shed load – reducing electric flow to parts of the campus where power is not crucial. Perhaps it restricts power to the pool pump or lights in the lecture hall.

In doing this, the controller must act quickly, balancing supply and demand in milliseconds.

Microgrid controllers not all created equal

One problem, says Morris, is that not all microgrid controllers are created equal. For example, SEL often finds itself working with customers that have old-school microgrids that do not automatically island and then reconnect to the grid. They are not fast – operating in the 10 to 20 milliseconds of new advanced microgrids – nor are they cybersecure.

In other cases, municipalities or small islands have systems with no inertia that may be a mix of diesel generators, solar, wind, battery storage or flywheels. “They have a difficult time keeping the lights on,” he said.  SEL brings in high speed controls that can shed loads fast, dispatch signals and control voltage and inverters. “We’re able to take this collection of different sources and make them all work together.”

SEL focuses on educating customers about what microgrid can — and cannot do.

“One of the perceptions is that there is an off-the-shelf microgrid controller that will work for everybody,” Morris said. “That’s not the case. Every single one of these microgrids are different and the dynamics are different. You need to model it.”

Microgrid controllers continue to be improved on several fronts. Efforts are underway to bring standards by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, more commonly called IEEE. Research facilities such as MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are further advancing the technology. (See related story.)

Work is also underway to bring greater sophistication to integrating renewables  within microgrids — as well as using microgrids to balance the central grid when solar panels or wind farms suddenly stop producing power.

For SEL it is all a continuum of 15 years of work.

“Our objective is to serve customers and give them safe reliable power 24/7. We’re dedicated to do that and to integrate new and important renewable resources. It’s a challenge we are up to,” Morris said.

For more information about SEL, please visit 

Interested in microgrid controllers? Learn more at Microgrid 2018 in Chicago, May 7-9.

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is an award-winning writer and editor who specializes in the energy industry. She is chief editor and co-founder of Microgrid Knowledge and serves as co-host of the publication’s popular conference series. She also co-founded RealEnergyWriters.com, where she continues to lead a team of energy writers who produce content for energy companies and advocacy organizations.

She has been writing about energy for more than two decades and is published widely. Her work can be found in prominent energy business journals as well as mainstream publications. She has been quoted by NPR, the Wall Street Journal and other notable media outlets.

“For an especially readable voice in the industry, the most consistent interpreter across these years has been the energy journalist Elisa Wood, whose Microgrid Knowledge (and conference) has aggregated more stories better than any other feed of its time,” wrote Malcolm McCullough, in the book, Downtime on the Microgrid, published by MIT Press in 2020.

Twitter: @ElisaWood

LinkedIn: Elisa Wood

Facebook:  Microgrids

Related Content

Dancing_Man / Shutterstock.com

United Nations Development Program Advances Zimbabwe Minigrid Initiative

March 22, 2024
Five potential minigrid sites have been identified as part of the United Nations Development Program’s $1.5 million Energy Offer Project.

Utilities Recognize Value of Microgrids: Many Speaking at MGK Conference 24

March 22, 2024
Speakers from the IOUs, municipal and co-op sectors spotlighted at MGK will include Cobb EMC of Georgia, American Municipal Power, Ameren, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, Baltimore...
SEALANDSKYPHOTO / Shutterstock.com

California Energy Commission Awards $3M Grant to Fund Vehicle-to-Grid Project

March 22, 2024
The grant will fund an innovative V2G program that will connect a fleet of electric school buses to the grid.
Rendering credit Schneider Electric

Schneider Electric Pairing EcoStruxure Microgrid Line with MainSpring's Flex-Fuel Linear Generator

March 21, 2024
The EcoStruxure Microgrid offering is aimed squarely at commercial and industrial customers. Mainspring’s generator offers fuel flexibility and resiliency, the companies say.

In the Race to 100% Renewable Energy, Islands Will Win — With the Right Grid Improvements

March 18, 2024
Looked at individually, islands are often overlooked as unimportant players on the global economic stage. Smaller geographies, smaller communities, fewer resources, and often ...

Schneider_Business
Schneider_Business
Schneider_Business
Schneider_Business
Schneider_Business

Microgrid Business Models and Value Chains

The new energy industry is working to categorize the various types of microgrids and business models. The primary goal is to minimize microgrid system cost and funding. To learn...