Microgrids: Building Resilient Energy Systems

Advancing the Energy Transition with RMI Globally Welcome to Voices of Change. I'm your host, Alison Pentish, and in this episode we're discussing micro grids and their role in building resilient energy systems. And I'm really happy to welcome our guests on this episode. He is Sydney Jules from RMI. Welcome to Voices of Change Sydney. Speaker 2 Hi Alison, thanks a lot for having me. Always a pleasure to speak to you. Speaker 1 OK, so we can dive right in and I'll let you introduce yourself to our listeners. Speaker 2 Sure, Sidney. Jules, as you mentioned, I am a manager with RMI, Rocky Mountain Institutes. We are a nonprofit organization who operates around the entire world focused on advancing the energy transition globally. We work across a number of different sectors. So whether it's the electricity sector with mobility, with industries and we also do a lot of work across geographies as well. And so we have a significant presence in the United States, but also in India, China as well as the Global South. So considering Islands sub-saharan, Africa and Southeast Asia and as a team that I'm a part of, the global soft team, I was specifically working in our Islands energy program. And in that program, we work very closely with governments, electric utilities, regulators and other major stakeholders across the region to really help them advance the energy transition. We have three main pillars as part of our work. The first one is focused on energy planning that involves helping stakeholders develop along some energy plans that align with their own interests or energy sectors. We also do a lot of work on project implementation and project D risking. So that's sort of second pillar and that involves really welcome of stakeholders to help develop renewable energy projects all the way from the project conception which is procurement and on towards construction and commissioning. And it's really just meant to ensure that we're successfully able to support countries to literally have steel in the ground when it comes to advancing their own renewable energy transitions. The third pillar is focused on people. And we work very closely with a lot of stakeholders across the region to help advance their own energy goals and to help them support capacity building and development for a lot of professionals in the energy space across the region. We also have a fourth pillar, which I forgot to mention, and that is focused on partnerships. So we collaborate very supposedly with a lot of other regional agencies across the entire Caribbean just to help jointly advance and support countries advance your energy transition. Maybe a bit more about myself, I am from Dominica, born and raised, and I've been with our my for the last almost seven years. So maybe that's enough about me, but let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know. Defining Microgrids and Their Resilient Function Yeah, fellow Dominican. So Sydney, that's a wide reach and a wide as well. So thanks for explaining that. And of course, you're here to talk to us a bit about micro grids. And it's something that when I spoke to some of my friends, my colleagues, they said, you know, this is an interesting topic. We, we really want to know more about that, especially when I shed pictures of some of the projects that you've done. So for listeners who might not be familiar with the term, however, could you define what a micro grid is and maybe just briefly how it functions? Speaker 2 Yes, of course. I would say to understand micro grids, I probably need to talk first about distributed energy resources or DERSDERS are basically energy generation and energy storage systems that are located very close to their points of use. So if you have to compare maybe like power station or centralized power plants, which generates electricity at a particular point and through your electricity grid, your transmission distribution network, it distributes electricity across a very wide range across the country. That's maybe like your typical system. But with DERS, you have the energy generation and energy storage sources much closer to where the energy is actually consumed. DERS could involve things like solar panels on your roof, battery storage systems, and even things like diesel generators. And so if you're being more broad, so that's Ders, but then micro grids, what they do is that they integrate Ders to be able to provide electricity for a localized area. So that could be like a school, your home or hospital, even an entire community. Micro grids function in the sense that you have these localized energy generation energy storage sources and they are able to provide electricity directly within that particular the localized area. Micro grids, they can and often times are connected to the grid, which means that the particular location has the ability to get its electricity both from the electricity grid as well as from the micro grid. But often times micro grids can and tend to be isolated systems, meaning that they're not dependent on the electricity grid for any form of electricity. So they're basically self-sufficient micro grids. I would say they have a real benefit in terms of being able to provide all during normal operations, whether you're connected to the grid, but you really see their power when they operate for some reason or another if you aren't connected to the electricity grid. So if there's a storm and you're disconnected from the electricity grid, micro grids have the ability to disconnect if they were connected and operate in what you call an island mode and. Speaker 1 The island mode. Speaker 2 OK. And imagine how important that is. I mean, if you have a home or a business, but even more so if you have particular services in a country which can be considered critical, like a hospital, a police station, various government departments. They an essential need to be able to ensure that they have continuous electricity. And with micro grids that helps enable that by ensuring that if there are times when they're connected to the grid and they get electricity, fine. But if for some reason it disconnects to the grid, that micro grid is able to provide electricity for these facilities at any point in time before, during or after any particular events. Post-Disaster Resilience: Dominica's School Microgrids Wow, that is really interesting. And of course we're coming to that time of year, June, June too soon. We used to say before when we in the Caribbean, we buckle down and we in Dominica, we pray that we don't get hit. But you had some real underground experience post disaster in Dominica. Could you tell us a little about that the your work in Dominica and maybe some of the successes and challenges involved in that project? Speaker 2 Yes, I'd say first of all, I definitely agree with you when it comes to the hurricane season islands across the Caribbean, everyone is pretty much on guard because you're never really sure where or when a hurricane might hits. And if it ever does hit a particular island, particularly if it's a major hurricane like a Category 5 hurricane of wind speeds over 155 mph, then the impacts can be extremely, extremely devastating. That's why we hear a lot about resilience, particularly in the energy sector and micro grids play a critical role to enable or enhance energy resilience, whether it's at a localized level or even if you expand that across an entire country. Maybe talking a little bit more about my experience in Dominica, I would say in maybe around 2020 our my work very closely with a nonprofit organization called Para Lionel Foundation and we helped to support the development of a couple's solar and battery storage microgrids at 2 schools in Dominica. Those schools are located in relatively rural areas and communities of a Bush and one prosper. Our Liners Foundation has really been focused on overall resilience and after Hurricane Maria, they were integral in supporting these two schools with their reconstruction and helping ensure that they had just a infrastructure after both schools were destroyed dramatically by Hurricane Maria. So after supporting with the reconstruction of these schools, CLF collaborated with RMI to help develop these micro grids at these two schools. They're relatively small schools, but we were able to successfully develop micro grids, which included about 10 kilowatts of solar PV and about 70 kilowatt hours of battery storage. These schools, they also serve as hurricane shelters. So in addition to just being able to provide energy for the schools, the micro grids are also built to ensure that if the hurricane were to occur and you have people at the schools sheltering during the storm, then the schools are able to maintain a continuous supply for electricity from the micro grid. Because, you know, during these times you aren't really connected to the grid. The grid is usually down at this time. So from 2020, we worked very closely with CLF and collaborated very, very closely as well with the Ministry of Education and the Government of Dominica to help develop the micro grids at these schools. And they were installed out say in 2022. And I've been working and operating very well since then, I would say providing most likely more than 80% of the electricity needs for the schools themselves. So that's with the solar and the battery storage system. So what usually happens is that during the day, obviously as the sun is out, you can have a lot of energy, electricity being provided from the solar panels to the schools. And if there's excess solar energy at a particular point in time, it gets sent to the batteries, it gets stored in the batteries. And then once you reach towards the end of the day when there's obviously no sunshine and no solar power, then the batteries begin to discharge energy so that they're able to supply the schools throughout much of the night. That's how they operate during normal operations. But then obviously during a storm or if they get disconnected from the grid, the schools that is they are able to sufficiently provide adequate electricity for the schools with the micro grid systems for over the as well. So I'd say this was just an example of pretty successful project. We supported Cloud Reliners Foundation and the government of Dominique Kowif, and definitely it involved a lot of collaboration to be able to lead to that successful outcome. Speaker 1 Right, and upwards of 80%. So that is significant. I was wondering in terms of the community and even it's because it's a school in terms of the the children involved towards their sense of curiosity. I know sometimes when these things go up, people see panels coming, you know, they want to know more. So how important is community involvement? And did you did you find from that experience that community members were just maybe just curious about what's happening and you know, it may be start to conversation? Speaker 2 Yes, community involvement is critically important in pretty much any project, but especially when you have projects that are localized within the hearts of small rural communities like dominical schools, micro grid project, I would say for sure like fraud the entire process. I mean, looking very closely with the Ministry of Education and going up to the schools, we definitely had a lot of curiosity from the the principals and then obviously the students once they saw what was being done. That kind of piqued the interest. Sure. Like once the installation was being done, we were able to talk a bit more about like solar energy and renewable energy and how exactly they're able to supply electricity to the schools compared to the normal operations where it gets the electricity from the grid, how it can be beneficial and so on. And even within the broader community as well, once the systems were installed, we were able to bring together members from primarily from the community centre just to be able to ensure that they have adequate knowledge about the micro grid systems. And also that they were able to receive training on how to be able to operate and maintain the system, Particularly if you have an event like a hurricane. And how to successfully and how to safely either shut off or put on the systems if for some reason it was ever disconnected and they were put in that position. So we did have to work quite closely and engage the community as part of this. And I would say in general, this definitely been a positive reception towards it's in the two communities. I think overall electricity and energy, something that is on the minds of a lot of people, not just in Dominic about across the Caribbean where electricity costs can be expensive and sometimes you may lose electricity or be disconnected from the grid. And by being able to provide a more resilient solution through the solar battery storage micro grid like, it definitely allowed people to really see like how exactly these systems can be beneficial for them and for the wider community. Standardizing and Regulating Microgrids for the Caribbean Wow, that's interesting. And it's also heartening to hear for people like me and people like you, those of us who work in that space in various capacities because that's the type of involvement we want, the conversation. We want that for, you know, even rural communities that people start getting involved in various aspects of renewable energy because, you know, this is where our future lies on a sustainable future. And speaking about future, I just wanted to touch on maybe two more items before we have to say goodbye. One involves scaling. What strategies are being explored to maybe scale these solutions across the Caribbean? Speaker 2 Yes. So you can probably imagine with micro grids being so localized, they're meant to be able to provide custom solutions for the particular locations that they're in. Because of that, you just want to ensure that they're adequately sized, that they're not too big in terms of maybe generating too much electricity for their particular localities. And then if they don't have any ability to export the electricity, then it kind of means that a lot of that electricity gets wasted. It pretty much gets lost. But you don't want them to be too small either because you want to ensure that they can provide that electricity for their localities. So now, so when it comes to scaling micro grids, a lot of potential scaling benefits I would say would come from being able to have standardized micro grid designs that can then become modular. So based on the load that the micro grids are serving, then you can adequately increase the capacity requirements to be able to ensure that they're able to generate adequate electricity for whatever facility that they're supplying. And in addition to that, I would say working towards financing mechanisms that can help make micro even just more broadly renewable energy and energy storage systems more affordable as well as more accessible possible to a wider range of the population. Speaker 1 OK. I was just curious before we end about policy, have you found in your work that the the policy frameworks and the right regulatory environment is already there or do we have some work to do on that too in terms of our small islands? Speaker 2 Yeah, it definitely varies from country to country. I think renewable energy is still something that is particularly new, but definitely something that is making this to be unchanging in terms of how Caribbean islands deal with it, particularly over the last 20 years. So you'll find a variety of policy or lack of policy regarding renewable energy systems and things like micro grids across the region. I think in some countries that you may not even have the ability to have a micro grid system or have anything that is not from the utility. In other places you may have your own renewable energy system, but you're not able to export any electricity to the grid. So you need to ensure that that particular system when it's through solar storage, even like a diesel generator and only supply your direct facility. And you have other countries as well. Maybe a good example is Barbados, where renewable energy, particularly on the solar site, has really proliferated over the last 1020 years. And because of that, you have a lot of homes, businesses, industrial facilities having their own renewable energy solutions that supply their facilities. And a lot of that was, I would say, driven by policies and financing mechanisms, which made it a lot more conducive or able to incentivize the uptake of renewable energy systems across the country. So it really and truly varies by country to country, but maybe as a whole, as a regional grouping, there's still probably a lot of work to be done. One, just properly classify what you're looking at, be able to provide guidance as to how renewable energy systems that are located behind the meter. So basically like if it's at your home or facility, how they're able to be installed or they're able to develop or they can interconnect to the grid if that's a need as well. As well as with things like the entire limiting process for being able to procure the equipment for micro grids and being able to install them on your homes. There are other things as well, like ensuring they're clear interconnection standards. Oh, exactly. You're able to interconnect these systems to the electricity grid if that is a requirement. And also probably still a need to ensure that the equipment itself that is being used for micro grids or even just supply your own facility, ensuring that they are adequately resilient, that they're built essentially a system being used of a standard to be able to withstand the impacts of a particular event such as Category 5 hurricane wind speeds. Because the open itself can vary quite a lot. And you want to ensure, especially in the Caribbean, if you have renewable energy systems, solar panels, battery storage systems, that they're adequately suited for the environment. So with things like solar panels, you want to ensure that they're rated to this time category five wind speeds. With battery storage systems, you want to ensure that they're able to operate effectively and efficiently within the usual bounds of temperature that we have in the Caribbean. And that also I'm not subject to very high humidity impacts and sea salt impacts, etcetera, that can tend to degrade their performance over time. So, so maybe I'd say quite a bit of guidance and color that would need to be provided on the policy side, but it's definitely a collaborative effort and something that I would say and hope you have a lot of progress on in coming years across the region. Empowering Communities with Resilient Energy Systems Oh, well, thank you so much for that. But before I let you go, I always like to ask, you know, if there's just maybe one thing or something you would like to leave with our listeners because this has been a really interesting topic. And I'm hoping that we can add some photos from your project so when our listeners come online, they can also see an album and, you know, and get a feel of this project and micro grids and their potential in the Caribbean, particularly post disaster. So maybe just what you'd like to leave with us into from our conversation about micro grids and their role in climate resilience. Speaker 2 Yes. I mean, we're definitely seen and experienced the increasingly negative impacts of climate change countries and economies. And as a result, I would say there's a very big need to enhance the energy resilience of our electricity systems. There are a number of ways to do that if you have to look at the broad electricity grid itself. But when you have other solutions with micro grids and you have the ability to enhance the energy resilience of the electricity system even further by ensuring that you have decentralized energy generation and energy storage sources that are able to directly meet their energy demand requirements wherever they are. And if you have a particular summer events, you basically have multiple locations where you're able to generate electricity. So you're not just completely cut out if electricity from the grid ends up being disconnected. So micro grids, I would say, play an essential role in enhancing the energy resilience of countries. They also play a significant role as well in reducing fossil fuel dependence. I know we haven't talked much about that, but with renewable energy being integrated so much time, you can essentially help to reduce requirements for fossil fuels, particularly when they're expensive and imported for island nations. And maybe one final point, when you have micro grids and they're embedded within communities, they're serving critical facilities, you really are able to empower communities where they're located and potentially even enhance the economic benefits within these communities and overall lead to just some more resilience. Energy system can benefit a wide range of people. Speaker 1 Thank you so much for that, Sydney. That was really, I really enjoyed this conversation. I know I say it all the time. So I guess, but really we could go on because it's it's a really interesting topic and something those of us on small islands again, who have to live through the the annual hurricane season would appreciate very well. So thank you very much for your insights and thank you for sharing your expertise and experiences with us and for giving us a lot to consider, especially at this scale. To our listeners, until next time, I'm Alison Kentish and thank you for tuning in to Voices of Change.