Dive Brief:

• Distributed energy resources (DER) could make up a third of the U.S. power supply by the end of the decade, according to Paul De Martini, managing director of the Newport Consulting Group and former CTO at Cisco.
• Nearly half of the 500,000 MW of DER would come from backup generators and another quarter would come from combined heat and power resources. Demand response would account for 18% of the DER and rooftop solar would make up just 8% of the total.
• Currently, backup generators and CHP facilities are not well integrated into the grid because they typically meet the needs of a single organization.

Dive Insight:

Integrated backup generators and CHP is a huge opportunity for utilities and grid planners as well as for entrepreneurial companies. CHP is seen as a potential backbone of microgrid systems. Perhaps increased CHP and clean-burning standby generators can be used to help build microgrids while supporting the larger grid system at the same time.