April 23, 2020 | Peter Lilienthal, Ph.D., CEO, HOMER Energy & Global Microgrid Lead, UL

The Story of Microgrids:A historical perspective

The First Microgrid 1882• Thomas Edison• Pearl St. Station, NYC

Telluride, Co. 1890• First use of AC in the US• First Electric Utility

Niagara Falls 1895

Nineteenth Century

• Economies of scale killed the microgrid

• Output = f(volume) x3

• Cost = f(surface area) x2

• Cost/output x2/3

• Less than linear

• Utilities: natural monopolies

Twentieth Century

• Small is Beautiful • (E.F. Schumacher)

• People-scaled technology

• 6 D’s of the Energy Future

Diseconomies of Scale

ENERGY FUTURE

Distributed Decentralized Diverse Digitalized Decarbonized Democratized

• Crack in the Monopoly Wall• Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act 1978

1980’sCombined

Heat & Power

1990’sVillage Power

2000’sIsland Power

2010’sResilience

1980’sCombined

Heat & Power

2010’sResilience

Modern Microgrids

Xcalac, Mexico 1992• Ownership• Management• Support• Energy efficiency

• Metering

• Local conditions

• Salt environment

Lessons fromEarly Renewable Microgrids

San Juanico, Mexico 1999

Remote fishing & tourism communityof 400 residents

• Mostly successful

• Significant technical losses

• Inverter standby power

Lessons fromEarly Renewable Microgrids

St. Paul, Alaska

• Island in the Bering Sea

• Lead-acid batteries are the weak link• Designed without batteries

• Excess wind is used for heating

• System runs without diesels weeks at a time

Lessons fromEarly Renewable Microgrids

Lessons fromEarly Renewable Microgrids

Wales, Alaska• Remote community on the Bering Strait• A little bit of storage goes a long way• Small high-power battery• Excess wind used for heating and hot water• Operation with all diesels turned off• Remote monitoring is crucial

• Tens of thousand of inhabited islands• Indonesia

• Philippines

• Caribbean

• Pacific

• Greece

• Arctic villages

• 10’s of kWs – 100’s of MWs

Retrofitting Diesel-Powered Utilities

Accelerating Change

Batteries

Electric Vehicles

Blockchain

Regulatory Change

Grid-connected Microgrids

• Hurricane Sandy & the need for resilience• More hurricanes• Wildfires• Ice storms, earthquakes, terrorist & cyber

attacks, coronal mass eruptions• Military• Campuses• Emergency services, critical infrastructure

Microgrids Lead the Way to Our Clean Power Future

Smart, Clean Microgrids

Smart Super Grid

Hybrid Renewable

Power Systems

Major UtilitiesRemote Diesels Backup

Diesels

Island Power Systems

Smaller Systems• Liquid fuels from oil

• High renewable penetrations

Large Utilities• Security obstacles

• Regulatory obstacles

Microgrids in the Post-COVID Future

Local expertise Remote training & monitoring Tools.PoweringHealth.org

DETAILS COMING SOONhttps://microgridconference.com/

8th ANNUAL

100% Virtual—Autumn 2020