Microgrids - An emerging Strategy for Reliable Power Generation
In 1996, a sagging power line in Oregon brushed against a tree, and within minutes 12 million customers in eight states lost power. Such is the vulnerability of today's power grid.
To address this weakness, Berkeley Lab scientists are helping to develop a new approach to power generation in which a cluster of small, on-site generators serves office buildings, industrial parks, and homes.
Called a microgrid, the system could help shoulder the nation's growing thirst for electricity — estimated to jump by almost 400 gigawatts by 2025 — without overburdening aging transmission lines or building the 1,000 new power plants required to meet this demand.
And it may make statewide blackouts a thing of the past, or at least ensure that service to critical equipment is maintained.
"Catastrophic loss of power to all systems like the 1996 blackout should be impossible," says Chris Marnay, an energy scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "If we sat down today to devise a power system from scratch, our design wouldn't resemble the one we have."
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To address this weakness, Berkeley Lab scientists are helping to develop a new approach to power generation in which a cluster of small, on-site generators serves office buildings, industrial parks, and homes.
Called a microgrid, the system could help shoulder the nation's growing thirst for electricity — estimated to jump by almost 400 gigawatts by 2025 — without overburdening aging transmission lines or building the 1,000 new power plants required to meet this demand.
And it may make statewide blackouts a thing of the past, or at least ensure that service to critical equipment is maintained.
"Catastrophic loss of power to all systems like the 1996 blackout should be impossible," says Chris Marnay, an energy scientist in Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "If we sat down today to devise a power system from scratch, our design wouldn't resemble the one we have."
The Rest from Sciencebeat
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