Presentation from the EPRI-Sandia Symposium on Secure and Resilient Microgrids: From Resiliency to Solvency: Building a Business Case for Public Purpose Microgirds, presented by Kenneth Horne, Navigant, Baltimore, MD, August 29-31, 2016.
8.5 million power outages – nearly 3% of US population
200,000 small businesses closed
$65 billion in economic loss = 6.5 Donald Trumps
159 fatalities
New York University’s medical center in Midtown Manhattan suffered severe flooding, which knocked out emergency power and forced the evacuation of hundreds of patients. But NYU’s main campus downtown still had electricity and heat, thanks to a 13.4-megawatt CHP (combined heat and power) plant and a self-sufficient microgrid system, which distributes electricity independently of the utility grid. Microgrids are considered one key way of making the power grid resilient during extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy.
Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/one-year-later-superstorm-sandy-underscores-need-for-a-resilient-grid
Given the wide range of technologies included in DER classification, deployments already outpace installations of centralized generation.
This year, DER deployments will reach 30 GW in the US. According to EIA, central generation net capacity additions (new generation additions minus retirements) are estimated at 19.7 GW in 2016. This means that DER is already growing significantly faster than central generation.
On a 5-year basis (2015-2019), DER in the US is growing almost 3 times faster than central generation (168 GW vs. 57 GW).
The macro trends we cite certainly vary by jurisdiction as the policy approach, market dynamics and structure vary. So the rate of penetration of DER can be very different depending on the jurisdiction. However, we do believe the macro trends will persist, meaning that the movement towards customer centric solutions & DER will ultimately become common across the U.S.