3 Energy Journalists on the 10 Most Interesting Microgrids

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“If you’ve seen one microgrid, you’ve seen one microgrid,” is an oft-repeated phrase at energy conferences. It refers to the fact that microgrids are customized products.

It’s a criticism, based on the belief that if the industry could figure out a way to make them into plug-and-play, Lego-like creations, we could build them faster, cheaper and at a greater volume.

​That’s true. But customization has big advantages too.

Take a look at many of the pioneering microgrids over the last 10 or 15 years. Built as if they were using clay, not Legos, they’re molded to niche needs and environments — from far-flung Alaska islands to Texas oil fields to a New York City airport.

In the history of microgrids, perhaps this will be looked upon as a period where we learned that microgrids can work pretty much everywhere (including outer space), a precursor to figuring out how to make them standard for use in many settings.

Out of this time has come a breadth of innovative microgrids.

During a recent podcast, I asked Lisa Cohn and Peter Asmus, two energy journalists who have written extensively about microgrids, to list some projects that fascinate them the most. Several of their choices show what microgrid reliability means at its most basic level – the ability to ensure shelter, health and food when the grid goes down.

Here’s a list of the most interesting microgrids from Asmus and Cohn — and I added a couple of my own. They are in no particular order.

1. Blue Lake Rancheria. A solar/storage microgrid with a diesel backup generator it serves a tribal community in Humboldt County, California. The microgrid powers tribal government offices, EV charging, a convenience store/gas station, a hotel and a casino. During a power outage, the microgrid saved lives by allowing community members to plug in electrically-run medical devices. Now Blue Lake Rancheria is serving as the starting point to create nested microgrids that will serve other tribal communities in the area.
2. Our Table Cooperative, an agrivoltaic-based microgrid designed to reduce crop warming from climate change, lower energy costs, provide resilience, and possibly improve the taste of lettuce.
3. Footprint Project/New Use Energy: The two organizations have been collaborating to introduce mobile microgrids to Ukraine, where the electric grid has suffered extensive damage due to the war.
4. Enchanted Rock’s Kashmere Multi-Service Center: Severe weather is threatening safety, growth and prosperity in Houston, Texas. So the city is planning 12 resilience centers to help people connect and access supplies.  Kashmere is the first.
5. GM Energy Mobile Microgrids: The General Motors initiative focuses on using electric vehicles as mobile microgrids in power-outage-prone areas.
6. Cordova, Alaska Microgrid: Cordova is an island that is not connected to a larger grid, but instead relies on a microgrid that derives most of its power from run-of-the-river hydroelectric sources. Its recent innovation is a 150 kW modular edge data center deployed by Greensparc and powered by excess hydropower capacity.
7. Kodiak Island, Alaska Microgrid. Built on the US’ second-largest island, the 28-MW microgrid runs on 100% renewable energy, and therefore excels at strategies to balance wind and hydroelectric power.
8. The Chelsea, Mass. Microgrid offers an example of how a community, dissatisfied with its local utility, developed a microgrid through a grassroots effort. Chelsea describes it as a microgrid without borders or a virtual microgrid that can circumvent the use of utility poles and wires. The project broke ground in December.
9. Montgomery County, Maryland Microgrids: Few communities have embraced microgrids more vigorously than this  Washington, DC, suburb. The county has microgridded a public safety facility, a police station, a recreation center, a pet shelter, a bus depot, and a transit center — and County Executive Marc Elrich says there are more microgrids on the way.
10. Southtown in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Off-grid microgrids were once rare, but now we’re seeing more of them, not just in islands or remote areas. The Southtown Microgrid is being built off-grid in downtown Ann Arbor for an apartment complex. It’s worth investigating not only for its off-grid status, but for the technology it employs.

Needless to say, we could have listed many more microgrids if we weren’t restrained by time and space. Tell us what microgrids you’d add to the list.

Listen and respond to the podcast, Microgrids Aren’t What They Used to Be.