Microgrids: What’s All the Fuss About? [President’s Message]

Abstract

Microgrids are simultaneously the past history of our power systems, a focal point of research into the future of power systems, and in many cases the practical situation that we live with today. A search on IEEE Xplore at the time of writing this article returns over 28,000 results; a Google search returns just under 25 million. There are countless definitions of what makes up a microgrid; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory website has a description that could be applied to many industrial sites: “A microgrid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. It can connect and disconnect from the grid to operate in grid-connected or island mode” [1] . This description could also be applied to a residential site with solar power, battery pack, and backup generator. Given the fact that so many existing sites can fall under the broad definitions of microgrids, a reader could perhaps be forgiven for asking what all the fuss is about.