I hope you find it as exciting as I do to be part of such a dynamic field. In addition to acting as an introduction to the 8th Annual HOMER International Microgrid Conference which starts Monday, October 12, this newsletter highlights new developments in the field of distributed energy and microgrids, and our top 5 reasons to attend HIMC 2020. The most newsworthy is the release of FERC Order 2222. DERs will soon be able to aggregate and participate in capacity, energy and ancillary service markets. This opens all kinds of opportunities for new project structures. It will take several months for it to go into effect, so stay tuned.
The other big news is the ongoing wildfires in the Western US and the impacts on the communities. Not only has the area around Carpinteria in southern California been subjected to wildfires and the resulting landslides, but their connection to the rest of California’s electric grid is through a 70-mile long mountainous transmission line, which carries power that can be shut off at any time due to wildfire risks.
During the conference, James Hamilton will talk about microgrids in Australia in Energy for Islanded Communities: Challenges and Solutions. I can reinforce his emphasis on phased approaches to retrofitting islanded power systems that he talks about in our article on tandem technologies. Most of these systems have been 100% reliant on diesel generation for decades and are not going to go from 100% diesel to 100% renewable in a single step.
We also highlight HOMER’s lead trainer and hope you will sign up for the training sessions that we are hosting in the 2 weeks after the conference. And finally, be sure to read our interview with Isaac Maze-Rothstein of Wood Mackenzie about market trends for microgrids in the developed and developing world.
At HOMER Energy by UL, we strongly believe that hybrid systems are the future and come in many different flavors. As batteries continue to improve hybrid systems will continue to evolve, and the diversity of applications and technical solutions is what makes this industry so interesting and exciting.
We’re pleased to welcome our new platinum sponsor ETAP, new gold sponsor XANT, new silver sponsor Sesame Solar, and several new Friends of the Conference tCell and Scale Microgrid Solutions. They are joining Rolls Royce, UL and Elum Energy as this year’s exceptional conference sponsors.
See you all next week and be sure to connect with us at one of our newly created Breakout Sessions.