Surprise! 97% of utilities see microgrids as a business opportunity

Think utilities see microgrids as an existential threat to their business? Think again.

A whopping 97% of utilities see microgrids as a viable business opportunity, according to the results of Utility Dive's survey report "The Utility View of Microgrids." (You can download the full report here.)

Microgrids — a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy that acts as a single controllable entity and can connect and disconnect from the larger grid at will — have become the hot new energy technology as the increased frequency of extreme weather events and the desire for greater energy independence is driving states and utility customers to adopt them.

But it has never been clear that utilities, which are key to integrating any new technologies onto the grid, would support their adoption. Until now, that is.

45% of utilities already have microgrids currently operating in their service territories, according to the 250+ U.S. electric utility executives surveyed by Utility Dive. Of those utilities, 27% actually own a microgrid themselves.

That is a surprisingly high number — and we suspect that many utility-owned microgrids today are there for the purpose of better understanding the technology and its functionality vis-à-vis the centralized utility grid.

59% of those surveyed indicated their utility has plans to develop, own and/or operate microgrids in the future — whether that's tomorrow or more than 10 years from now. For an industry that built the centralized grid, this is a big shift that shows that distributed energy resources are here to stay.

Perhaps more surprising is the fact that utilities see microgrids as a business opportunity. 56% of utilities surveyed see microgrids as a business opportunity within the next five years. That's good news for the microgrid business — and utilities.

And while utilities may fear the negative impacts that microgrids could have on their business, the vast majority of utilities surveyed indicated they would not stand in the way of regulatory changes to incentivize them to advantages of the microgrid opportunity. 85% of utilities believe their utility is not being incentivized to develop, own and/or operate microgrids, but 84% say they would like to see regulators incentivize utilities to do so.

In fact, quite a few utility execs surveyed suggested that distributed microgrids should be operated by a centralized authority and even voiced support for the groundbreaking type of reforms that New York is now proposing. Contrary to popular belief, utilities do not microgrids as a threat, but as an opportunity they are not currently being rewarded to pursue.

Regulators, sounds like it's your move.

If you want to read the full results and analysis, you can download the survey report here.