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A Guide To Remote Tribal Microgrids
The Role of MicroGrids
A microgrid is a localized energy system that can generate, store, and distribute electricity independently or in coordination with the main power grid.
Learn about Micro Grid Solutions
Clean Energy is Everywhere
Guide Build by Cornell Systems Engineering Students
As Cornell students, we created a guide to help people learn about microgrids and the solutions they offer.
MicroGrid Benefits
Understanding microgrids can empower property owners to make smarter energy choices. Whether you’re looking to improve resilience during power outages, lower electricity bills, or explore clean energy options like solar, microgrids offer flexible and efficient solutions. Knowing how they work can help you evaluate if a microgrid is a good fit for your property’s energy needs and long-term sustainability goals.
1. Energy Resilience
Keep the power on during grid outages, providing backup electricity during emergencies
2. Lower Energy Costs
Using local energy sources like solar, microgrids can reduce resiliance on expensive grid power and lower utility bills.
3. Environmental Sustainability
Integrating renewable energy helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Energy Independence
Give communities and property owners control over their power supply and energy.
5. Grip Support
Help Reduce strain on the main grid during peak hours, helps prevent blackouts and stabilizes energy supplies.
MicroGrid Guide BreakDown
High Level Guide Topics to Explore!
Section1 – Microgrid Basics
Introduces microgrids, their components, and the benefits they can bring to communities, especially remote ones.Section 2 – Planning Your MicroGrid
Technical, financial, and regulatory steps needed to successfully plan a microgrid project.Section 2 – Planning Your MicroGrid
Technical, financial, and regulatory steps needed to successfully plan a microgrid project.
Introduction: A guide full of questions
This guide will be full of questions.
If you find yourself curious to know their answers, or if you find that you already have some of the same questions – then you’re in luck. The goal of the guide is not just to be a list of questions, it is to take you down the path of finding answers and to help you learn enough about microgrids that you’re asking even more questions by the time you’ve made it to the end.
We wanted to focus on rural and remote communities.
Within the guide, ‘rural and remote communities’ are loosely defined as communities far from major urban areas that typically have limited or no connection to the electrical utility grid. These communities are more likely to be underserved when it comes to electrical power needs, and they face a more challenging task recovering from natural disasters that cause the power to go out.
Also, this guide contains information for those with utility access as well, but given these challenges, our mission was to highlight the specific ways rural and remote communities can take advantage of microgrids to solve their energy-related problems.
Generating power doesn’t have to generate pollution.
Many rural and remote communities rely on fossil fuel generators as a primary source of power. While a microgrid doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of these generators entirely – it can offer solutions that provide power in a cleaner, quieter and even more cost-effective way. The guide will help you navigate the best way to take advantage of those solutions.
So – here are some key questions you should expect to have answered:
- What are microgrids?
- What would make a microgrid the right choice for my community?
- How does it really look to implement this kind of solution?
These questions and more are addressed within this guide.
Who are the stakeholders?
Before getting started, it’s important to call out who the stakeholders are to keep in mind when it comes to the topic of microgrids for rural and remote communities.
Stakeholders are any entities that have an interest or are involved with a given system. The primary stakeholders involved within a rural and remote microgrid projects are displayed below. Understanding the relevant stakeholders and how they fit into the process of designing and implementing a microgrid is crucial for making sure that your solution addresses all the parties’ needs.
Some useful technical definitions
These are some helpful technical terms to be aware of as they are used throughout the guide. These definitions are less ‘scientific’ and more to provide the right context for understanding each term as it is used in the guide.
- Controls – This equipment can monitor the status of DERs, the utility, and the loads in the system to make sure power is provided in a safe, effective way. Individual DERs have their own controls that talk to a centralized system control overseeing the whole microgrid.
- DERs – Distributed Energy Resources refers to sources of electrical power that are physically located close to the load that they help meet. This is opposed to a centralized power plant that creates a large amount of power which is transported by traditional utility infrastructure across long distances to meet loads. Engine-based generators, wind turbines, hydro-electric equipment, and solar PV are all considered DERs.
- Dispatchable – This refers to the ability to control the power output of a DER to produce a specific amount of power on-demand. Generators and batteries are considered ‘dispatchable’. DERs that rely on natural resources, like solar PV relying on the sun to produce power, are ‘non-dispatchable’ because they can’t be controlled the same way.
- Energy – The ability to do work. In the context of this guide, electrical energy can be thought of as what is stored in something like a battery that can light up a lightbulb for an amount of time. In this guide, it will often be expressed in terms of kilowatt-hours (kWh).
- Energy Storage – Systems such as battery energy storage systems (BESS) can contain excess energy to be used later, such as during a power outage or when electricity costs are high. Storage can also be thought of as a DER.
- Loads – The electrical power demand needed for homes and community facilities.
- Microgrid – A small number of distributed energy resources (DER) connected to a single power subsystem. At a high level, they contain loads, sources, and controls.
- Power – The rate at which energy can be delivered. It can be thought of as the number of lightbulbs a battery can light up at once (without considering how long the battery would last). In this guide, it will often be expressed in terms of kilowatts (kW).
- Reliability – with respect to electrical power grids, this refers to the ability to avoid interruptions to normal power service. A utility or microgrid that rarely goes down is considered reliable.
- Resilience – with respect to electrical power grids, this refers to the ability to recover from an interruption to normal power service. A utility or microgrid that can get back up and running again quickly after a failure is considered resilient.i
- Sources – Equipment that provides power to meet the loads of a microgrid. These can include the utility, generators, wind turbines, hydro-electric equipment, solar PV, and battery energy storage systems.
- Utility – The ‘utility’ in the technical context of the guide refers to electrical utility companies. These companies are responsible for creating substantial amounts of electrical power in one or a few centralized locations and then transporting that power across a large area. Utilities vary widely in terms of their rules, billing structures, and policies for interconnecting.