IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2014 - 2

about this issue

Is the Microgrid
Buzz Real?
By Mohammad Shahidehpour
and Steven Pullins

know what you are thinking...another series
of articles on the benefits and challenges of microgrids
in the electric industry. we in the microgrid business see
a lot of chatter and positioning in this emerging marketplace. are
microgrids real? Can microgrids be financially viable? will
microgrids upset the 70-year-old electric monopoly business
model? will microgrids harm grid reliability? such questions must
be fun to debate since so many in the industry are engaged in the
banter. Let's step back and look at a few trends in the industry that
suggest change is happening.
the u.s. Department of energy information administration (eia)
tracks a lot of electric industry data. one of the trends over the last
eight years is that u.s. electricity consumption is flat. some industry
leaders say that it is related to the recession, but the eight-year flat
period extends to before and after the recession. the eia trend in
central-station fleet capacity factor has been declining steadily for
the past 15 years. as of the 2012 data, the central-station fleet
capacity factor is now 42.5%. the eia trend in demand-side management is increasing steadily. the actual peak load reduction is
29 gw, which is double the 2002 reduction, with energy savings at
138 gwh, nearly triple that of 2002. the eia trend in commercial sector generation in new england
and the middle atlantic states
The loss of electricity
increased by 27% in just one year
to the elevator in a tall (2012 versus 2011).
navigant research reports
building can isolate
that, as of the second quarter of
some residents from
2013, there are 219 operational,
food and medical
under construction, or planned
assistance.
microgrid projects in the united
states. industry analyst sBi energy reports that the worldwide
microgrid market was 2.4 gw in 2010 and projects that it will be
5.7 gw by 2020. at a macroview, consumption is flat, the centralstation fleet is less competitive (decreasing capacity factor),

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2014.2301272
Date of publication: 18 March 2014

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / MARCH 2014

EdItorIal board
Saifur Rahman
Editor-in-Chief
Virginia Tech
Virginia, USA
srahman@vt.edu
Iqbal Husain
Editor, Electric Vehicles
North Carolina State
University
North Carolina, USA
ihusain2@ncsu.edu
Eduard Muljadi
Coeditor, Electric Vehicles
NREL: Wind Research
Colorado, USA
eduard.muljadi@nrel.gov
Herb Ginn
Editor, Electric Ships
Universitiy of
South Carolina
South Carolina, USA
ginnhl@cec.sc.edu
Robert Cuzner
Coeditor, Electric Ships
DRS Power and Control
Technologies
Wisconsin, USA
RobertMCuzner@drs.
com
Eduardo Pilo de la
Fuente
Editor, Electric Trains
EPRail Research
and Consulting
Spain
eduardo.pilo@eprail.com
Jose Conrado Martine
Coeditor, Electric Trains
Directcion de Estrategia
y Desarrollo
Spain
jcmartinez@adif.es
Bulent Sarlioglu
Editor, Electric Planes
University of
Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, USA
bulent@engr.wisc.edu

Mohammad
Shahidehpour
Editor, Off-Grid
Illinois Institute
of Technology
Chicago, USA
ms@iit.edu
Steve Pullins
Coeditor, Off-Grid
Horizon Energy Group
Tennessee, USA
spullins@horizonenergy
group.com
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Coeditor, Electric Planes
Rolls-Royce Corp
Indiana, USA
Christine.AH.Ross@
rolls-royce.com

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MELE.2013.2297773

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2014