MicroGrids, Utility Enemy or Savior?
MicroGrids Present The Best Solution To Smart Grid Security and Reliability Challenges
Utilities face several challenges in the 21st century, insolvency being top of the list for most Utility executives. Having relied upon revenue from large energy customers to provide affordable residential services, they have grown accustomed to being in control of their world.
Large commercial and industrial energy customers, however, are rapidly becoming energy producers. Distributed Generation and MicroGrid Technology offer these customers the ability to generate and manage their own energy production AND consumption more economically and reliably than the Utility Smart Grid. Utilities now face what the Telecom and Media industries have faced for decades, thanks to the Internet — The loss of control over their customers.
MicroGrids enable large customers to choose whether to use Utility energy, or not. As companies like Ebay, Google and Oracle deploy GigaWatts of Fuel Cells, Solar Panels and Combined Heat and Power plants, today’s Utilities not only are loosing control, but are seeing a decline in commercial and industrial customer revenue as well.
On the other hand, as long as Utility Smart Grids continue to be built on the assumption that energy generation happens far from where it is consumed, Reliability and Security challenges will only worsen. Self contained MicroGrids, distributed throughout a Utility operated Distribution Grid, offer the best and only true solution for redundancy. Microgrids reduce single points of failure which increasingly occur due to weather related outages and cyber attacks. The longer Utilities regard MicroGrids as Enemy #1, the sooner they will face not only insolvency, but a plethora of operational and security challenges.
Ontario’s community owned PowerStream Energy is one Utility to begin incorporating MicroGrid technology into the Utility Smart Grid portfolio. With their Utility Operated MicroGrid demonstration project (video link here) now operational, the stage is set for a new Smart Grid paradigm.
