![]() ![]() Support places of refuge in regional crises and first respondersĭiversified risk rather than concentrated risk Offer grid services including: energy, capacity, and ancillary services Integrate CHP, renewables, thermal and electric storage, and advanced system and building controls Improve the operation and stability of the regional electric gridĬritical infrastructure that increases reliability and resilienceĮnable highly-efficient CHP, reducing fuel use, line losses, and carbon footprint Provide efficient, low-cost, clean energy Microgrids are neither transmission nor pure generation and are really not contemplated by the planning system at all, even though they can provide reliability and economic benefits to the grid. “Congestion pricing” in RTO markets allocates the use of the system but does not provide an incentive to site generation to meet grid planning goals. The compensation systems for transmission and generation are fundamentally different, even though both can serve to improve the adequacy and reliability of supply. In addition, microgrids are generally not recognized as capacity resources.Īt the level of federally mandated transmission planning, matters are even more confused. Traditional baseline load calculations for demand resources do not capture the optionality of microgrids. ![]() Microgrids employing multiple energy management technologies can simultaneously provide multiple services with multiple set points, but market rules generally do not permit them to do so. The regulations are designed for resources that are generators or that provide load curtailment, not resources that are both. However, adoption by Independent System Operators (ISOs) and RTOs is following slowly there is still much room for improvement. Orders 745, 755, and 784 open the doors within Regional Transmission Operator-managed control areas to compensation for demand resources and storage facilities that provide demand response and frequency regulation services. At the federal level, FERC has been making pioneering efforts to level the playing field for resources such as microgrids. They generally purchase power at retail rates, either from utilities or, where allowed, competitive load serving entities that are regulated by state public utility commissions (PUCs), and they sell power at wholesale rates subject to FERC jurisdiction. ![]() The initial mapping is based on data in the public domain but Behrendt hopes to expand it and invites microgrid developers or others connected to microgrids to make contact with her.As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has recognized, even though they are generally located behind the meter on the distribution system, microgrids provide services that substitute for and compete with the services of wholesale generation. The mapping to date includes 13 existing microgrids, two microgrids in construction and four potential microgrids for which limited data is available, with colour coding to distinguish them. As a result, the transaction costs increase due to uncertainty.īehrendt initiated the mapping to provide empirical data towards her research.įor the purpose of the mapping, she defines a microgrid as having to fulfill three criteria – that the system has functionalities for both islanding and grid connection, that it has defined boundaries and that is has a control entity that is able to manage the energy resources alongside the loads. However, the transaction costs are to a large extent determined by the legal framework, which is currently lacking in the EU. Such transactions lead to mutual welfare gains only if their transaction costs do not outweigh their benefits, Behrendt points out. Microgrids market worth $206bn by 2031 – report Microgrid laboratory enables asset testing within diverse configurations ![]() The central question of Behrendt’s research is how microgrids should be regulated in the EU in a way that minimises the transaction costs and maximises the legal certainty in order to make an effective and efficient contribution to the energy transition.Īs small scale decentralised systems, microgrids have a key role to play in the energy transition, supporting the integration of an increasing share of renewable energies and providing a route for consumers to become prosumers by engaging in the buying and selling of electricity. The initiative, undertaken as an offshoot of her research into the regulation of microgrids from the legal and economic perspectives, is aimed to provide as complete as possible overview of microgrid implementations in an accessible format. University of Groningen doctoral researcher Jamie Behrendt has started mapping existing and developing microgrids across Europe. ![]()
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