National Energy Administration on Microgrids

Can microgrids improve energy resilience?

Since microgrids are not the only way to enhance energy resilience, communities may want to consider alternate resilience investment options, including hardening existing transmission and distribution systems, weatherizing power generation sources, and building additional distribution systems to provide energy supply redundancy.

Should a microgrid rely on the availability of natural gas?

Deciding whether to fully or partially rely on the availability of natural gas is a site-specific decision that depends on factors such as the anticipated reliability of gas supply, the criticality of the load, the purpose of the microgrid, and the location of the microgrid.

What information is provided in NREL's microgrid design process?

NREL’s microgrid design process For each step in the process this report provides practical information for DoD stakeholders, including information to gather, analysis to be conducted, available tools, examples from DoD projects, and lessons learned. Specific examples of the types of information provided include:

How can a microgrid improve sustainability?

Many locations also have renewable energy generation sources such as PV panels or wind turbines that provide variable power output. These can be good resources to add into a microgrid to improve the ability to sustain long outages, as they do not depend on fuel deliveries and they increase the overall sustainability of the system.

Can a microgrid supply enough power?

A microgrid must be able to supply enough generation to match electrical load requirements at all times. Evaluating existing on-site generation options (e.g., on-site PV, energy storage, cogeneration, and back-up generators) is the first step in developing a strategy for the microgrid to power loads.

What drives the economic value of natural gas generation in a microgrid?

For a theoretical microgrid, the economic value of natural gas generation in the microgrid is driven by the cost difference for grid electrical energy versus purchased natural gas.