Architecting the Smart Grid Using the Industrial Internet of Things
the extreme there is an equivalent fossil fuel generator spinning in the background, ready to take
over. Those generators are burning fuel and wearing out bearings.
What is needed is 15 to 30 minutes of extra time. If the utility has 15 to 30 minutes to ramp up
an additional generator then they do not need to have the spinning reserve. To provide the time
needed, energy storage and load reduction are promising techniques. This scenario is similar to
why data centers have large UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems, to bridge the time
between a power failure and the start-up of on-site diesel generators.
3.
MICROGRIDS HELP INTEGRATE DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES
Microgrids are a particular area for research and proof-of-concept projects to incorporate energy
storage and load reduction techniques. Microgrids usually encompass a well-defined, relatively
small geographic region with some combination of intermittent energy sources, energy storage
systems like batteries and some local control capability that allows the microgrid to “island” itself
from the main power grid and run autonomously. College campuses have been proving grounds
for this technology, as have military bases. The advantage a microgrid provides is its ability to
respond rapidly and locally, to a loss of power from solar arrays or local wind turbines using
backup energy sources like batteries.
Two key capabilities for microgrids are intelligent control at the edge of the grid and peer-topeer, high-performance communications for local autonomy (see Figure 1). With these, a local
battery energy storage system can receive a message in milliseconds from the solar arrays when
back-up energy is needed. The local controller on the battery can switch the battery from charge
to source mode almost instantly. This keeps the local energy consumers powered and gives the
utility time to spin up central power resources as needed before the local system needs it.
IIC Journal of Innovation
- 19 -