Adopting a microgrid offers valuable advantages for businesses, such as improved reliability, resilience, and environmental sustainability. Because unplanned downtime is a cost businesses strive to avoid, many are recognizing the benefits of generating and storing their own energy as a backup against power outages.
Let’s examine the world of microgrids and the benefits of using modern independent energy systems.
According to Microgrid Knowledge, “A microgrid is a self-sufficient energy system that serves a discrete geographic footprint.” Microgrids often cover a university campus, business site, or small community. They typically include several components, such as:
While a microgrid is often linked to the public grid, it’s capable of operating independently, able to provide power even when there’s an outage caused by a natural disaster or other interruption.
Microgrids are becoming an increasingly attractive benefit as the energy world faces more disruptions due to heavy loads on an aging grid or inclement weather as a result of climate change.
And unlike traditional backup power, today’s microgrids are intelligent, with a computer managing energy storage, generators, and systems. Software can strategically balance resources based on pre-set priorities for the microgrid — for example, achieving minimum environmental impact or the lowest possible energy costs.
With smart microgrid systems, businesses can maximize energy reliability and resilience in several important ways.
Adopting a microgrid energy model can maximize your business’s resources and minimize costly downtime due to power outages outside your control. Here are a few of the main advantages:
Power outages can wreak havoc on businesses, taking operations offline and causing costly delays and losses. A microgrid’s capability to operate independently from the main grid will keep your facilities up and running during emergencies such as natural disasters and brownouts, allowing you to maintain business continuity when the surrounding grid is struggling.
When equipped with the right software and controller, a microgrid can optimize energy usage — even to the point of evaluating whether it’s more cost-effective to use DERs or tap into the main grid at a particular moment. And while setting up DERs such as wind turbines or solar panels involves an up-front expense, these elements pay for themselves over time as they allow you to generate your own energy — and reduce your reliance on public sources of power.
Many DERs are also greener sources of power, so increasing your use of wind, solar, or geothermal energy can help your company document its carbon footprint reductions and reach ESG goals.
Many industrial companies, such as manufacturers using robotics on the factory floor, require an uninterrupted flow of clean, conditioned power. Today’s microgrids manage voltage and frequency fluctuation concerns, making it easier to achieve no-blip service.
Here are a few real-life examples of businesses successfully utilizing microgrids:
Setting up a microgrid can be a complicated and time-consuming process. If you choose to build the solution yourself, you are likely to run into challenges around engineering a successful setup, navigating regulatory requirements from local authorities, and footing the costs of building out the infrastructure. Here’s a brief overview of the steps involved in setting up a microgrid:
While the benefits are numerous, another limitation to consider is that microgrids are not without some drawbacks, the main one being that they are limited in scope, serving only an immediate geographical area.
While microgrids are a great idea for many businesses, they can be difficult to create and manage. The R3Di® System provides all the benefits of a traditional microgrid in a turnkey solution. Here are some advantages of choosing R3Di® instead of building your own microgrid:
Choosing a turnkey solution instead of building a traditional microgrid allows you to get the system online much sooner — and makes it easier and more cost-effective to implement and maintain.
R3Di®is a utility-grade, onsite power generation system that delivers conditioned, uninterrupted power to end users. R3Di® relies on a self-contained, turnkey power platform installed without requiring an interconnection agreement or costly public utility upgrades.
It’s capable of providing instantaneous full-load pickup in the event of an outage and sustaining power during long-duration blackouts. Relying on safe and sustainable lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery chemistry for energy storage, R3Di® can store and provide up to 1 MW of power and includes a natural gas generator for additional support.
With Grove365, you’ll be empowered to uncover savings with the help of our energy management team. We’ll use historical data and advanced analytics to predict peak demand times — so you can avoid increased charges.
And we work with a large supplier network to secure the most competitive rates and terms based on your company’s needs. In an expanding partnership with Keyfive, we also provide AI-driven monitoring and power dispatching.
Our team works closely with regulatory agencies using time-saving means such as automated notifications and efficient testing to limit manual processes and paperwork around compliance. Our compliance services include:
As municipalities seek to modernize power grids and fold in more renewable energy sources, microgrids will play a key role in locally balancing supply and demand issues. Governments are recognizing the advantages of microgrids — especially in the push toward carbon-neutral energy production — and implementing new funding streams and faster, easier permitting processes to encourage microgrid adoption.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play an increasing role in operating microgrid software and regulating local power grids. AI algorithms can process and analyze enormous data sets quickly and easily, considering factors such as weather and energy usage patterns and offering new insights to optimize power distribution.
AI can also detect and diagnose maintenance issues in equipment across the grid, helping utilities — and microgrid managers — to address service issues proactively instead of finding out there’s a problem when the system goes down.
Ready to implement a turnkey microgrid solution that improves power reliability and quality while optimizing energy costs? Schedule a consultation today.
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