Microgrids
= Microgrids are “a collection of small generators for a collection of users in close proximity [1]
Definition
"Microgrids are modern, small-scale versions of the centralized electricity system. They achieve specific local goals, such as reliability, carbon emission reduction, diversification of energy sources, and cost reduction, established by the community being served. Like the bulk power grid, smart microgrids generate, distribute, and regulate the flow of electricity to consumers, but do so locally. Smart microgrids are an ideal way to integrate renewable resources on the community level and allow for customer participation in the electricity enterprise." (http://galvinpower.org/microgrids)
Description
John Robb:
"A Microgrid enables the ability to do the following:
- to disconnect from the national grid when there is a general utility failure. This enables a combination of back-up power systems from third party providers -- everything from flywheels to back-up generators (very much the same approach that data-centers use).
- to build a local market for power production. Since the Microgrid buys power in volume from the national grid, it will likely get dynamic pricing data (time of day, etc.). This data allows the Microgrid to offer local producers of electricity the ability to sell into the Microgrid at competitive prices (peer to peer production). Of course, if local power production is a priority, then the price comparison can be weighted via subsidies to favor local producers.
- to add smart features that will only get nominal deployment on the national grid. For example, the ability to add smarts to devices and homes to allow customers to manage their consumption of electricity at a granular level -- from price to device."
(http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2008/04/resilient-commu.html)
Example
"Mayor Gianni Alemanno and the city of Rome host a joint press conference with Jeremy Rifkin (the principal architect of the European Union’s Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan), on May 31st 2010, to release a master plan that will radically transform Rome into a Third Industrial Revolution economy, making it the first post-carbon city in the world. Rome’s green economic recovery plan, which involves the investment of billions of euros over the next twenty years, is a bold and far-reaching initiative designed to revitalize Rome’s economy by spawning new industries and businesses and creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
The Rome Third Industrial Revolution Master Plan was prepared by the Jeremy Rifkin Group—comprised of 100 of the world’s leading renewable energy companies, construction companies, architectural firms, IT companies, power and utility companies and transport and logistic companies, including Philips, IBM, Schneider Electric, Arup, Q-Cells, KEMA, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, etc.—in collaboration with Mayor Alemanno, Professor Livio de Santoli, Energy Coordinator for the Mayor, and more than 40 experts from the City of Rome.
In June 2007, the European Parliament formally endorsed a four-pillar, long-term sustainable economic development plan to transition the EU to a Third Industrial Revolution, with the aim of making Europe the flagship for a green economic recovery for the world. The Third Industrial Revolution plan is now being implemented by various agencies within the European Commission, as well as in the 27 member states.
The announcement of the Third Industrial Revolution Master Plan by Mayor Gianni Alemanno is the first comprehensive economic initiative of its kind and, puts Rome at the forefront of initiatives being pursued across Europe to reach the 20-20-20 by 2020 EU mandate and achieve the long-term goal of realizing the Lisbon Strategy to make the EU the most competitive economy in the world."
(http://www.generatinginsights.com/whitepaper/microgrids-in-rome)
Discussion
John Robb on Microgrids and Resilience
"Smart microgrids are now going mainstream with multiple software start-ups and big efforts underway at Siemens and Cisco. Given this pace of expansion, I suspect that this bottoms up approach will vastly outstrip and eventually curtail any efforts to build smarts into the larger utility grids (which is estimated to cost $165 b in the US alone, money that doesn't exist). Also, with this level of interest, open source efforts are sure to follow.
So what does this meant to those of building resilient communities? Smart microgrids are a platform that can be built upon. For example:
- It supports the development of a vibrant local market or ecosystem of power producers at the small business or household level.
- It enables communities to build in back-up systems that can keep them operational even when the rest of grid goes dark/down.
- It provides a way for innovations to reach end users immediately and new synergistic opportunities when combined with other local systems."
(http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/04/update-microgrids.html)
More Information
See the articles on Micropower, Distributed Power Generation and the P2P Energy Grid