Remote regions of the world such as the circumpolar Arctic, once viewed as disadvantaged due to a lack of conventional grid infrastructure, have proven to be fertile ground for microgrid innovation. This innovation flows from both the challenges associated with providing reliable electricity without the benefit of traditional transmission and … [Read more...]
Local governments, military officials, university heads, utilities, water and waste facilities, as well as executives overseeing hospitals, transit, airports, and port authorities are exploring the feasibility of microgrids for their operations and seeking relevant examples to emulate. This microgrid guide, developed by Rima Oueid, a senior adviser … [Read more...]
California’s major wildfires in 2017 and 2018 resulted in the bankruptcy of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and the expansion of utility policies to shut off portions of the distribution grid during times of high fire risk. These intentional power shut-offs are expected to average 2–5 days, Concerns about the shutdowns have prompted proposed … [Read more...]
Multi-user microgrids (MUMs) are an emerging approach to electricity service that allows neighboring customers to obtain greater resilience in electricity service, from a set of locallyinstalled distributed energy resources (DERs) of their own choice (sometimes including solar energy and energy storage), through joint participation in a power … [Read more...]
Power outages have both acute and long-term impacts on public health and the critical infrastructure that supports the achievement of public health goals. Acute, immediate impacts tend to grab headlines. In November 2012, Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge knocked out power along the coast in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, disabling primary and backup … [Read more...]
For many agricultural and food processing companies in California, operating at the grid edge has become an increasingly risky proposition. To start, the quality and stability of the energy is often poor in agricultural regions. Further, the cost of that energy is unpredictable and continues to see increases. The Public Safety Power Shutoff … [Read more...]
The City of Berkeley received a grant from the California Energy Commission as part of its Electric Program Investment Charge program to conduct the Berkeley Energy Assurance Transformation (BEAT) project. The BEAT project explored how to design a clean energy microgrid community (CEMC) to serve key municipal buildings and to improve community … [Read more...]
Microgrids offer a classic example of government policy chasing technology. While microgrids are being developed worldwide, few jurisdictions offer much-needed policy guidance and certainty. At Microgrid 2018, Edward Yim, associate director at the DC Department of Energy and Environment, shared how scalable resilience and a focus on climate … [Read more...]
Energy decentralization is a major development that could help tackle the energy challenges of the 21st century. Major technical and economic improvements have allowed substantial progress in decentralized energy resources, such as solar energy and storage and the Internet of Things (IoT), driving new cooperation and optimization capabilities. Also … [Read more...]
Interest is rising in clean energy microgrids, especially within healthcare, higher education, government and business. What’s the attraction? All microgrids offer greater electric reliability. But the clean energy microgrid does more. It also reduces carbon emissions and helps organizations reach sustainability goals—an achievement increasingly … [Read more...]
Commercial customers paying demand charges and time-of-use rates should seriously consider an investment in solar plus storage, a common technology used in microgrids. RMI’s Ryan Shea and Madeline Tyson describe the the organizations recent research on costs.
Leaders in large corporations, government agencies, and other organizations face numerous challenges in running their day-to-day operations. For them, energy – the lifeblood of many organizations – has historically been seen as reliable, and occasional power outages considered an inevitable cost of doing business. However, these same organizations are starting to view energy and the associated risks and opportunities in a new light as power outages continue to impact their organizations and as new energy innovations make it to market. Download this new white paper from Ameresco that explores ways in which government agencies, companies, and other organizations can leverage their energy infrastructure to minimize the adverse impacts of major events – in other words, become more resilient.
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