Energy Resilience Driving The Energy Transition
The transition provides opportunities for local production of energy, in addition
to traditional centralized production and distribution. Broadening the sources and
type of energy supply can provide benefits in improving resilience against disruption
in supply, as has occurred during economic embargos, war, and via hurricanes or floods
which shut down production and transmission. Renewable production can make use of
local wind, solar, geothermal or bio-based energy to provide increasing options for
supply. Local jobs and community benefits can be enhanced by microgrids or distributed
production of energy and fuels, with new business models for ownership.
Resilience can thus be realized by transitioning to a broader scope of energy supply.
Figure ET-18 from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) describes the
basic components of a microgrid. When a major grid fails due to loss of power lines
(hurricane) and/or production (hard freeze), local communities could potentially rely
on a microgrid to supply some of the power to emergency response, shelters, and hospitals.
Optimization can be based on the needs of the local community, and include power generation
and renewable energy storage that augments main grid performance during normal operation.
Renewable energy (wind and solar), energy storage via batteries, and natural gas peaker
plants or diesel generators can scale down to smaller units of production to enable
localized generation of heat and power.1
Reference:
1. Voices of Experience, Microgrids for Resiliency, NREL/BK-7A40-75909.
Figure ET-18: Potential components of a Microgrid