Page 9 - Microgrid Knowledge Library News Today

Microgrids can be carbon-free or fully reliable, but generally not both. Experts at Microgrid 2021 look at balancing microgrid goals.

By Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock.com The funding is from the agency’s Resilient Maryland program, which aims to help eligible organizations and governmental entities set up microgrids, resiliency hubs, resilient facility power systems and advanced combined heat and power (CHP) systems. “Maryland continues to lead by example, providing funding to help Maryland communities and organizations address energy resiliency through the use of cleaner and renewable energy options,” Maryland Gov. Lar...

Xcel Energy is launching a resiliency-as-a-service pilot for its commercial and industrial customers, with Xcel paying for 90% of the behind-the-meter microgrid costs upfront, getting paid back by the microgrid users over 10 years, and excluding the costs of the program from the rate base. Xcel partnered on a microgrid at Panasonic’s headquarters in Colorado. Photo courtesy of Xcel Energy. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission May 13 approved the plan (Docket 4220-TE-106), which involves co...

By Rei Imagine/Shutterstock.com After launching in the United Kingdom, GI Energy started its US operations in 2011 with headquarters in Chicago. The company expanded from its initial focus on geothermal heat pumps into fuel cells, battery storage, microgrids and, more recently, batteries combined with solar as well as reciprocating engines for co-generation, said Tom Chadwick, Endurant CEO. “What we found was we were an integrated house with one big gap, and that was capital,” he said. Ulti...

By Heidi Besen/Shutterstock.com Somewhere far off in another country, a hacker infiltrated a US energy company, crippling a fuel supply line that runs 5,500 miles from New York to Texas and leaving me, like others, unsure if I’d make it home from work on the gasoline left in my tank. It is an example of the vulnerability of sole reliance on big energy.  Electric grids are the big energy equivalent of the fuel line on the power side of the energy industry. They carry electricity instead of fu...

Kentucky has 558 ideal sites for nanogrids and a dozen potential sites for regional community microgrids, according to a state study that aims to spur microgrid development at critical facilities in response to the growing threat of power outages. The Kentucky Regional Microgrids for Resilience Study was designed to help utilities, local and state governments, and industry stakeholders move from planning microgrids to building them. “We continue our efforts to respond to the rapidly changing ...

When community members participate in renewable energy planning and financing — especially with community microgrids or community solar — they facilitate the move to renewable energy, said the co-author of a new study on shared decision making from the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis. Shutterstock.com The study, “Public Attitudes, Co-production and Polycentric Governance in Energy Policy,” focused on projects in two towns in Austria that aim to utilize high levels of...

Digital power yields numerous benefits in the electrical world, providing real-time information and advantages for power system design, intelligent energy storage, fast charging programs, smart cities and reliability. Tanuj Khandelwal, CTO of ETAP, explains that the move to digital power will be one of the main drivers pushing the microgrid industry forward. This interview, conducted  by Elisa Wood, editor-in-chief of Microgrid Knowledge, is part of the Microgrid 2021 Executive Interview Serie...

An unusual group of partners from the Republic of Korea and Hawaii are conducting microgrid research at a saltwater pumping facility in Hawaii, with a goal of using artificial intelligence (AI) to help boost the efficiency of the existing power system by 30% when it is off-grid because of utility outages. Pump station photo courtesy NELHA The project, expected to be completed by mid-2022, will benefit both Hawaii and the Republic of Korea through the development of green energy technologies. Tw...

By JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock.com The effort, announced April 20, is part of the DOE’s Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), which was unveiled late last year. Through the program, the DOE provides resources and on-the-ground support for remote and island communities that want to transform their energy systems and lower their vulnerability to energy disruptions. Remote and island communities are often heavily affected by climate change, according to the DOE’s National Ren...