Hi can somebody help me understand the rationale. What shared value is this creating? The only thing that comes to my mind is that micro grids might have limited back up and the community wants to grow and hence makes sense to connect to the grid.
by rhyme_pj
3 comments
Flexibility. To your point, maybe the community wants to respond, so it needs more power. The utility could also use the micro grid as a means to lower demand in case the grid is stressed. I’m sure there are many other reasons as well.
It’s all about reducing capital costs and accessing economies of scale.
Much cheaper power on the main grid. Also reliability, like what if your one diesel generator breaks.
When they built the block island wind farm in Rhode island they encountered relatively little local resistance, unusual for us offshore wind projects. The reason was block island ran its own grid off a few aging generators, and building the wind farm meant also building a transmission line to shore. The ability to buy power from the mainland cut retail power costs by something like half.