Microgrid White Papers

State regulatory bodies are realizing that out-of-date regulatory rules are limiting Microgrid adoption and are working to change regulation. States such as New York, Connecticut, and Minnesota have allocated funding and started conversations on how best to change the state regulation to allow for Microgrids to be adopted. Read More »

All power systems also require the capability to balance, in real time, differences between load demand and generator output. This balancing capability—which keeps system frequency at the level where it’s designed to operate—is critical to ensure the stability and reliability of the overall power system, for both centralized power grids as well as microgrids. In a centralized grid, fossil-fuel-fired generating plants typically will ramp up or down to ensure demand and generation output remains in balance. Read More »

As large scale battery technology and economies of scale continue to improve, many industrial utilities are investigating the use of battery technology as the basis for Grid Energy Storage Systems (GESS). Based in Victoria, Australia, AusNet Services chose to trial the technology to explore the ability to manage peak demand with the potential to defer investment in network upgrades. This whitepaper presents these results and discusses the future applications for the demonstrated technology. Read More »

Distributed energy resources (DER) are smaller-scale clean energy resources, such as renewable energy and energy storage resources, located near customer load. In recent years, DERs have made great strides due to market reforms, advanced technologies, and declining costs. Despite these advances, DERs serve less than 1% of electricity load nationally. Many barriers exist to greater deployment of DERs. These barriers include the utility business model, market structure, and regulatory policies. Read More »

Reciprocating engine generators are becoming increasingly important to help solve three contemporary energy problems. The Guide to Reciprocating Engine Generators and Microgrids explores the growing role that reciprocating engine generators play in solving these three problems. Read More »

The electric power grid is undergoing one of the most fundamental changes since its inception over a century ago. And if the aim of a decentralized and digitalized grid is reliability and resilience, the digital tools used to design, test and integrate the components to achieve that end are of utmost importance. Download the new Microgrid Knowledge report, courtesy of Typhoon HIL, to learn more about how new tools and processes like Hardware in the Loop (HIL) testing and Model Based Engineering (MBE) can pave the way to a better microgrid. Read More »