So What’s up Now with Microgrids?

Source: Elisa Wood | · ENERGY CHANGEMAKERS · | May 1, 2024

After some time away, here’s how I see the microgrid market now.

I got the chance to immerse myself in microgrids again last week after nearly a year away. The new owners of the site I co-founded, Microgrid Knowledge, kindly welcomed me to the publication’s annual conference, held this year in Baltimore, Maryland.

What struck me immediately was that this market stops for no one. Turn your head for a moment, and a lot happens. Here are 5 concepts and trends worthy of note from the conference stage.

1. Watch for the rise of the living microgrid or “dynagrid”

We have microgrids, nanogrids, minigrids, and now dynagrids, a term used by the Department of Energy’s Gil Bindewald. Dynagrid stands for dynamically configurable microgrids, which represent the merger of microgrids and AI.

Dynagrids are not built based on an artificial construct or boundary. Instead, “they’re able to be almost living,” in terms of their ability to harness resources and meet needs, said Bindewald, a principal deputy assistant secretary at the DOE. Such microgrids ‘understand’ electricity systems as well as the needs of the people they serve. They can self-configure or self-adjust to those dynamics.

It’s not a brand new term. The National Renewable Energy Lab and other researchers have been exploring dynagrid concepts. Will we soon see the term make its way to the commercial sector?

2. Microgrids spring from the grassroots

Have you ever heard of communities, church groups or local organizations banding together and saying, “Hey! Let’s build a big transmission line in our neighborhood!” More likely, they’ve said, “Let’s not.”

But it’s different with microgrids.