Back in the mid to late 2010’s, it felt like you couldn’t open your newsfeed without being bombarded with stories about micro-grids. Similar to the discourse on battery storage at the time, articles in the mainstream press about microgrids tended to portray them as a silver bullet to many of the power issues that were starting to become normal.
In particular, I remember the hype around Tesla’s microgrid/solar initiative in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. They were feel good stories about the power of technological innovation and Musk’s own philanthropic genius—oh how things have changed. However, a couple years later, a Huffington Post reporter visited the projects and found them in disrepair. The writer describes the sorry state of one site: “At one water treatment facility, the battery sat dormant and, during HuffPost’s visit to the site in late February, the field of solar panels was overgrown with weeds and brush. Several panels bore the shattered imprints of horse hooves, a predictable problem on an island with one wild horse for every two humans.”
Micro-grids failed to deliver on their promise, but that’s perfectly normal. Transformative technology usually fails to deliver on initial hype, afterall. Remember all the early internet companies that went bust at the turn of the millennium? After, however, the ones that survived, like Amazon and Google, went on to change the world.
There are some indications that we’re finally starting to see microgrids deliver. First of all, they are being developed at an impressive clip. Here are some highlights from a Wood Mackenzie report on micro grids earlier this year:
“The US microgrid market has seen a 47% increase in solar and storage capacity in 2022 compared to 2017 levels. Moreover, Wood Mackenzie data shows that more than 175 solar- and solar-plus-storage microgrid projects have been in active development and were scheduled to come online by the end of 2022.”
“Wood Mackenzie data shows that there are 28 states with utility microgrids, with approximately 35 megawatts (MW) expected to have come online in 2022. This implies total utility microgrid capacity of over 1.1 GW.”
“Akhavan said: “From a microgrid capacity perspective, if the market continues to develop at a rapid pace, we will see more than 20% growth in annual capacity installation across the US compared to last year.”’
An article in the New York Times this past summer showed what some of these new grids look like:
"Many have been built by government agencies, academic institutions and health care facilities, Ms. Akhavan said. But she predicts that residential microgrids will be quick to expand, as home developers opt to invest in power-resiliency projects and as states begin to offer funds and incentives. The California Public Utilities Commission, for one, recently approved a $200 million program to bring community microgrids to disadvantaged and tribal communities that are vulnerable to power outages."
"At Heron’s Nest, the 62-kilowatt solar system and 255-kilowatt-hour battery are maintained by the local utility, Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation. Homeowners get a monthly energy credit on their utility bills by signing an interconnection agreement with the utility, which controls their hot-water heaters and thermostats when there’s high power demand. If the local power grid is stressed and the utility believes a power outage is necessary, residents here will be able to keep their lights on."
There are other formats as well. One that comes to mind is the Blue Lake Rancheria micro grid. The California reservation received a good deal of attention a few years ago when their micro-grid turned the small community into an electric oasis during a one-day blackout in the region. Although the miniature grid was built in 2011 with a tsunami in mind, it will undoubtedly get more use in the near future providing relief during the increasingly intense California fireseasons.
As extreme events, whether they be ice storms, heat waves, or wildfires, continue to become more commonplace in the West, so will microgrids. As most on this forum know, however, microgrids are no panacea. There simply are no silver bullets when it comes to grid reliability. Although micro-grids do no not solve the big problems facing our grid in the 21st century, they might be a small part of the complex recipe needed to maintain reliability while mitigating climate change.