It was a hot summer in Texas. Even into autumn the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was urging customers to use less electricity. Given these events, and new renewable energy options, businesses in the state are — no doubt — thinking about their energy choices. Microgrid Knowledge will explore issues surrounding ERCOT’s supply … [Read more...]
This is the latest in a series of articles on ideas that emerged from Microgrid 2019, held in San Diego May 14-16. Here we focus on a discussion about energy storage from the panel "Beyond Islanding: The Well-Connected Microgrid." Microgrids increasingly depend on solar-plus-storage — or the ability to generate solar power on site and to … [Read more...]
Partnership to watch: NRG Energy and Cummins Here is one to watch. Energy giant NRG Energy and engine manufacturer Cummins have formed a partnership to offer distributed energy systems for commercial and industrial customers. The partnership brings together NRG’s distributed energy capabilities with Cummins’ generators into a platform … [Read more...]
Attention and promise is one thing – true growth and value is another. Today, renewable energy has clearly landed on the second half of this equation. Once the domain of well-meaning early adopters, renewable approaches now involve a broader array of practices, products and technologies put in place by an ever-expanding roster of ROI-driven … [Read more...]
Questioning the legality of utility-owned microgrids, regulatory advisors in Maryland on Friday came out against a microgrid pilot plan by Baltimore Gas & Electric. Instead, the staff of the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) called for the commission to launch a larger, generic proceeding on microgrid policy in the state. The … [Read more...]
New York appears to be moving in the direction of making electric utilities into something like an Internet marketplace for energy -- and this may not be a wise move. That’s the word from the Microgrid Resources Coalition (MRC) in written comments filed this week on Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), a much-watched strategy to decentralize New … [Read more...]
America is good at making enough electricity to serve its increasingly plugged-in economy. Ample juice is flowing. Problem is, there is no place to plug in. We are becoming a nation beset by socket insecurity. Watch the weary traveler in almost any airport, on the hunt for a charging kiosk to save his cell phone before its final tweet. … [Read more...]
New York showed itself as the nation’s leader in community microgrid development July 8 by awarding funds for an unprecedented 83 projects through its $40 million NY Prize. No other state has made such a vigorous foray into this type of microgrid, which focuses largely on keeping critical facilities up and running in a community when the central … [Read more...]
Central Hudson Gas & Electric wants to test the market for complex microgrids in a project with NRG Energy that may span as many as 50 buildings. The New York utility described the project in a recent filing before the state Public Service Commission. It is one of the seven projects offered by Central Hudson to help the state develop its … [Read more...]
Rocky Mountain Institute’s Andrew Allee describes a problem arising out of electrification in Nigeria. Minigrids are electrifying rural areas, but residents do not benefit if they cannot afford appliances.
The electric power grid is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes since its inception over a century ago. And if the aim of a decentralized and digitalized grid is reliability and resilience, the digital tools used to design, test and integrate the components to achieve that end are of utmost importance. Download the new Microgrid Knowledge report, courtesy of Typhoon HIL, to learn more about how new tools and processes like Hardware in the Loop (HIL) testing and Model Based Engineering (MBE) can pave the way to a better microgrid.
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