RESILIENT COMMUNITY: MICROGRIDS

Electricity is the lifeblood of modernity, but it is going to become much more expensive (fuel expense/availability) and unavailable (due to an increase in random failures via underinvestment to a plethora of black swan scenarios). As such, communities need to gain control over the flows of electricity in order to become resilient. One of the first steps towards this goal is through the concept of the Microgrid. Here's some background reading from the CERTS (Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions). Essentially it is a local power network connected to the national/regional grid through a smart switch.

Why the Microgrid?
There's been lots of exploration at the national level on incorporating computing architectures (data services plus sensors) into the grid system (known under the rubric "the Smart Grid"). Unfortunately, these efforts suffer from the step function problem. This means that the changes contemplated are too expensive and too wrenching to accomplish on a large scale (akin to boiling the ocean). The only way to implement these new technologies and methods is to find a way to do it organically. The Microgrid enables this by creating a local network (electricity plus data services) that can become a platform for the organic growth of a diverse and innovative ecosystem of solutions and providers.

What it Does
A Microgrid enables the ability to do the following:

• to disconnect from the national grid when there is a general utility failure. This enables a combination of back-up power systems from third party providers -- everything from flywheels to back-up generators (very much the same approach that data-centers use).
  
• to build a local market for power production. Since the Microgrid buys power in volume from the national grid, it will likely get dynamic pricing data (time of day, etc.). This data allows the Microgrid to offer local producers of electricity the ability to sell into the Microgrid at competitive prices (peer to peer production). Of course, if local power production is a priority, then the price comparison can be weighted via subsidies to favor local producers.
  
• to add smart features that will only get nominal deployment on the national grid. For example, the ability to add smarts to devices and homes to allow customers to manage their consumption of electricity at a granular level -- from price to device.
  

WIM (what it means)

It's important to point out that Microgrid technology and processes have applicability to:

• Counter-insurgency. Even though tens of billions of dollars have been invested in the reconstruction of Iraq, we still can't keep the lights on in Baghdad. Microgrids could make this possible.
  
• Development. Microgrids provide a mechanism for organic growth in developing economies plagued by badly functioning national grids.
  
• Competitive advantage. Communities that get this right (high availability power that is also very clean), will gain a competitive edge in competing for residents and business flow. The pay-off is higher home values and better/more jobs.
  

Comments

[Duncan Kinder]

For additional information on this sort of thing, goto "Democratic Energy: Communities and Government Working on the Energy Future"

http://www.newrules.org/de/index.html

[deichmans]

Great post. What I have learned (living through earthquakes in Calif. and hurricane in the southeast) is that electricity is fragile: but *natural gas* is very rarely interrupted.

On my "home resilience wish list" is this baby from Briggs & Stratton:

http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay_10551_10001_36860_______14151%7C14170%7C36860?listingPage=true

(BTW: we could always tell who in the neighborhood had a generator -- and therefore cold beer and food storage -- by the glowing doorbell buttons during a blackout. Amazing how much those stand out when everything within three miles is dark....)

[John Robb]

Micro CHP systems make more sense:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroCHP

80% of energy used in centralized plants to produce electricity is lost to heat.

[James F. Elliott]

Hi Mr. Robb,

Would it be possible to add category tags to your Resilient Community posts? Such organization might be very helpful in navigating the site. Thanks.

[John Robb]

James,

Like most people, I'm terrible at using metatags/categories. I'll try to backtrack a bit to do that though.

[rick]

Currently, my wife and I are in the process of planning to demolish our house, and rebuild on the site with a smaller and more energy efficient construction. Further, we hope to install enough solar generation capacity to be a net exporter of electricity, and receive a check from GA Power at the end of the month, rather than sending a check to them.

Additionally, when I was doing work for the Army Environmental Policy Institute years back, I wrote a letter to GA Governor Barnes to state that w/ the technological leadership of GA Tech, GA could position itself as a global leader in alternative energy, especially solar. My thoughts at the time included insuring that public schools (where we often temporarily house displaced people), fire and police stations (to ensure communications remain viable) would increase the robustness of emergency response following a disaster. Also, that by distributing the energy generation infrastructure, the effort would in effect make the targeting of traditional power generation unproductive to attackers.

Anyway, the response I received was representative of the progressive thinking from leadership typically found in SC, GA, AL, MS and LA.