On April 25th and 26th, 2017, HOMER Energy participated in the TISED (Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design) microgrid research workshop program, Is There a Role for Microgrids in the Energy Future of Quebec and Canada? HOMER Energy CEO Dr. Peter Lilienthal spoke about “Microgrid Activity around the World,” distilling insights from HOMER Energy’s database of 25,000 microgrid projects in 193 countries.
Lilienthal on microgrid activity around the world
(All presentations from the workshop are available on YouTube.)
The HOMER projects discussed ranged from tiny systems to power African villages to power systems for islands the size of St. Thomas, Aruba, or Maui. Lilienthal also spoke about a new category, the “grid-connected microgrids” that are being developed to make critical infrastructure more resilient against catastrophic events. He used New York State as an example of microgrid initiatives that began after Superstorm Sandy knocked out power to 8,100,000 customers in 17 states in 2012. Last winter saw a similar scenario play out in Winter Storm Stella‘s wake. Local authorities throughout the Northeast United States began to develop pilot projects following these disasters, including New York State’s NY Prize program and the REV (Reforming Energy Vision) program which incentivizes utility companies to promote distributed power and microgrids. The slideshow for Lilienthal’s presentation is available here.
