Federal grants support microgrids

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded over $8 million in funding for 7 microgrid projects.  Will microgrids play an increasing role in the U.S. electricity industry?

Solar photovoltaic panels can serve as distributed generation for microgrids.

Microgrids -- localized grids capable of operating as energy islands using distributed generation, energy storage, and distribution wires, as well as able to connect to the broader utility grid -- can offer participants and society at large significant value.  These benefits can include increased reliability against storm damage and infrastructure damage, reduced emissions of carbon and other pollutants, and reduced costs.

The Energy Department runs a portfolio of microgrid activities ranging from direct research and development to building community support.  Most recently, the Department announced over $8 million in grant funding to support 7 microgrid projects.  The Department selected these projects based on their ability to develop advanced microgrid controllers and system designs for microgrids less than 10 megawatts:

• ALSTOM Grid, Inc.: about $1.2 million to research and design community microgrid systems for the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation and the Philadelphia Water Department, using portions of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard. 
• Burr Energy, LLC: about $1.2 million to design and build a resilient microgrid to allow the Olney, Maryland Town Center to operate for weeks in the event of a regional outage, and a second microgrid for multi-use commercial development in Maryland. 
• Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd): about $1.2 million to develop and test a commercial-grade microgrid controller capable of controlling a system of two or more interconnected microgrids, serving civic infrastructure including police and fire department headquarters, transportation and healthcare facilities, and private residences. 
• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI): about $1.2 million to develop a commercially-viable standardized microgrid controller that can allow a community to provide continuous power for critical loads. 
• General Electric Company (GE): about $1.2 million to develop an enhanced microgrid control system in Potsdam, New York, by adding new capabilities, such as frequency regulation. 
• TDX Power, Inc.: about $1.2 million to engineer, design, simulate, and build a microgrid control system on remote Saint Paul Island, an island located in the Bering Sea off mainland Alaska. 
• The University of California, Irvine (UCI): about $1.2 million for the Advanced Power and Energy Program at UCI to develop and test a generic microgrid controller intended to be readily adapted to manage a range of microgrid systems, and supporting the development of open source industry standards.

Each project also includes an awardee cost share ranging from 20 percent to about 50 percent.  Will the DOE funds lead to better and more widely adopted microgrids?

Wave, tidal energy potential in US waters

The U.S. Department of Energy released two reports last week documenting two of the nation's potential ocean energy resources: waves and tidal streams.  Hydrokinetic energy resources such as waves, tides, and currents may soon play an increasing role in US energy supply.

Although each of these reports was prepared in 2011, DOE is pointing to the reports as demonstrating the potential of conventional and innovative water power resources to generate electricity. In its statement promoting the reports, the Department of Energy noted that water power, including conventional hydropower and wave, tidal, and other water power resources, can potentially provide 15% of our nation's electricity by 2030 (up from 6% currently).  As DOE noted, the United States currently uses about 4,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year.  Based on these reports, and other studies, DOE estimates that the maximum theoretical electric generation that could theoretically be produced from waves and tidal currents is approximately 1,420 TWh per year, approximately one-third of the nation's total annual electricity usage.

The wave energy assessment report, Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource, was prepared by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).  That report identified a total available wave energy resource of 2,650 TWh per year.  As in previous studies, Alaska's Pacific coast is the wave energy standout, hosting about half of the total available wave energy.  The west coast (Washington, Oregon, and California), the northern east coast (from Maine through North Carolina), and Hawaii also host significant wave energy resources.


The tidal stream report, Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Tidal Streams in the United States, was prepared by Georgia Tech Research Corp.  It describes the effort to create a national database of tidal stream energy potential.  The geographic distribution of the tidal stream resource is similar to that of wave energy: Alaska contains the largest number of locations with "considerably high kinetic power density", followed by Maine, Washington, Oregon, California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  In total, the report identified 50 GW of tidal stream capacity nationwide, 47 GW of which is in Alaska.

The size of these resources is significant.  What remains to be seen is whether hydrokinetic energy can be generated in a cost-effective manner.  With significant research and developments ongoing, competitively-priced hydrokinetic power may soon be generated along US coasts.