The need for microgrid standards was a central theme at the National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid held in May. In the utility world, people are waiting to see what emerges from an array of pilots in New York, Connecticut, California and other states. But based on our experience designing and controlling commercial and industrial microgrids, there’s no need to wait. We don’t need pilots. Standardization is possible now—and it should be a priority.

The rollout of automated demand response programs illustrates the benefits. Standardized communications technologies have improved interoperability of solutions, reduced deployment costs and created a rich vendor network: the OpenADR Alliance has over 135 members with 85-plus certified products. This reduces risk for utilities and others looking to roll out programs or applications, because it doesn’t leave buyers stranded if something happens to their vendor or they no longer like its terms.

A recent Utility Dive article, citing GTM Research’s North American Microgrids 2015 report, pointed out that the “hyper-specific” nature of microgrid projects has held back their growth. That’s because nothing about microgrids is standard—not even their definition. Microgrid installations are often built on proprietary control systems with different methods of metering and storing energy data, custom dashboards, and varying system communications capabilities. There’s no consistency in what information the microgrid site and the grid operator have access to or how the microgrid communicates its status. And there are no guidelines for battery sizing and incorporating storage.

All that means there’s a real need for standards covering microgrid design, connections to utility meters and solar PV inverters, communications and dispatch, and grid integration.

Use should drive design

Setting a design standard for a C&I microgrid is first about developing a standard process for figuring out what’s critical to your operation. The engineering firm Arup, for example, looks at 10 functional requirements and use cases for all types of microgrids: system balancing, generation dispatch, switching management, load shedding, islanding, power quality, storage dispatch, ancillary services, demand response and resource optimization. Grid-connected facilities are likely to be most concerned about resource optimization, DR and load shedding, though this will vary depending on the resources tied into the microgrid and what the goal is: cost control, self-sufficiency, backup power, reduced carbon footprint and so on.

With the goal and functional requirements established, we can create several standard configurations. For example, Powerit has outlined three levels of behind-the-meter microgrids:

• Solar power + demand management (virtual battery): Solar power plus demand management, the minimum setup needed to create a behind-the-meter microgrid, is all many C&I facilities need. In this configuration, an advanced demand management system (DMS) creates a virtual battery by manipulating the facility’s inherent energy flexibility and process buffers. This virtual battery balances solar intermittence, and the DMS also enables participation in auto-DR programs, controls demand peaks and manages loads against dynamic pricing structures.
• Solar power + demand management + basic battery: Adding a physical battery creates more capacity and expands the facility’s ability to participate in fast DR and the transactive energy market, which will allow distributed resources to contribute their generation and capacity resources to the grid at market rates.
• Solar power + demand management + deep-storage battery: With a deep-storage battery, capable of storing 40% or more of peak demand, a facility can operate independently from the grid for more than one hour and go off the grid in emergency situations. In addition, the combination of a big battery and a virtual battery allows a facility to balance any remaining solar volatility, arbitrage energy purchases by charging up off-peak and discharging on-peak, participate in DR programs without any change to plant operations, and provide more ancillary services.

Communications should facilitate demand management

Microgrids require a communications standard that enables automated resource coordination. The microgrid controller must communicate with the battery control system, solar power system, loads and the grid to optimize resource use. People are using existing communications standards, but the information that they communicate is specific to the installation. A defined communication and control standard for microgrids would help drive down cost and increase interoperability.

In current microgrid deployments, there’s the possibility for systems to compete with one another to balance the facility. For example, the DMS and the storage control system could both predict a peak and try to avoid it, leading to rapid, excessive charges and discharges or equipment cycling. At minimum, they need to communicate system status and intended actions to each other. Ideally, one system would be the master, sending discharge or reduction signals to all assets.

We also need a standard for reporting resource status and energy information to the controller, the facility manager, and the utility or other load-balancing body.

Energy dashboards should show all resources

In addition, we should define minimum information access for all parties—facilities, utilities, third-party owners of energy resources, and aggregators. Facilities need a single dashboard where they can view and manage all the energy resources—instead of the situation today, where facilities need to consult multiple dashboards to get a true picture of their energy status.

Visibility into a facility’s energy resources is important not just to the facility, but to anyone who is running a resource program and wants to see what they can do with it. The utility needs to know the status of assets and loads in each distribution feeder, so that it can balance localized issues. Aggregators that know the true status of charges or available reductions can bid in resources more confidently. And facilities that have a clear view of their site flexibility can contribute to grid stability and achieve an attractive payback by bidding into grid-balancing programs.

The sooner standards are set, the better for everyone

Interest in microgrids is growing, and in the C&I space at least, the technology exists to get them up and running. Standards are the missing piece that will make them a real grid resource.

Ideally, an industry standards body will define basic microgrid requirements. This will drive down solution costs, enable facilities to earn revenue by combining disparate resources in behind-the-meter microgrids, and provide an important balancing service to the grid.

Vendors, meanwhile, should begin working together to develop complete microgrid solutions. A key aspect of these partnerships is defining the technical integration and communications protocols. Standardized microgrid controls must communicate with the grid to enable optimal resource use.

Business models are evolving so that PV and storage projects are increasingly attractive to C&I customers, and many facilities are investing in microgrid elements today. The sooner we can adopt published standards, the more interoperable our solutions will become, and that will lead to a flexible, responsive demand side of the grid.