IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - May/June 2014 - 76

a previously mentioned paradox found in most conventional residential PV systems. Currently, these systems
are equipped with grid-tied inverters, which cannot power
their load even when the sun is shining during grid power
outages. that is, even when PV systems do not have a lifeline, a renewable energy source cannot power its local load
because another infrastructure, the power grid, has failed
(see Figure 15). the reason for this issue is that grid-tied PV
inverters need to comply with ieee standard 1547, which
specifies that "the distributed resources shall not energize
the area electric power system when the area electric power
system is de-energized." however, the u.s. Doe program
solar energy Grid integration systems has already identified this issue in its 2007 white paper to promote research
efforts to address such limitations in grid-tied PV systems,
and there are current efforts to modify ieee standard 1547
to contemplate this situation. another challenge is the education of the end user regarding the capabilities and expectations of a microgrid, especially those powered using
renewable sources, as evident from the Queensland, australia, floods incident.

Conclusions
in 2013, Pike research, an independent market research
entity, predicted that the worldwide annual revenue from
microgrids is expected to reach us$13 billion by 2018. international standards such as ieee standard 1547.4 have been
developed for the efficient interconnection and operation of
microgrids. in the united states, many demonstration projects sponsored by the Doe via the rDsi program have illustrated the use of microgrids. in europe, two major research
efforts have been devoted exclusively to microgrids with a
total funding of €13 million including field trials in actual
installations. From the examples presented in this article, the
applicability and broader benefits of the microgrid in disaster
relief are quite clear even though, in most cases, this was
not necessarily a design objective. in that regard, the planning process for the future grid should take into account the
coordinated operation of microgrids during disasters as one
of their many potential benefits.

Acknowledgments
the authors are grateful for the comments and guidance of
Dr. tsutomu oyama, professor in the Department of electrical and Computer engineering, Yokohama national university, Japan, and Dr. Chris marnay, (retired) staff scientist
at the lawrence Berkeley national laboratory. the authors
also acknowledge the insightful discussions of the participants and audiences of the panel, "microgrids and Disasters," at the Jeju 2011 symposium on microgrids.

ieee power & energy magazine

For Further Reading
B. Kroposki, r. lasseter, t. ise, s. morozumi, s. Papathanassiou, and n. hatziargyriou, "making microgrids work," IEEE
Power Energy Mag., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 40-53, may 2008.
e. strickland. (2011, oct.). ieee spectrum inside technology. a microgrid that wouldn't quit: how one experiment kept the lights on after Japan's earthquake. [online].
available: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/amicrogrid-that-wouldnt-quit
a. Kwasinski, "technology planning for electric power
supply in critical events considering a bulk grid, backup
power plants, and micro-grids," IEEE Syst. J., vol. 4, no. 2,
pp. 167-178, June 2010.
t. oyama, a. Kwasinski, l. reyes, D. Cornforth, C. abbey, and n. hatziargyriou. (2011, may). microgrids at Berkeley labs, Berkeley national laboratories. Disaster panel at
Jeju 2011 symposium on microgrids. [online]. available:
http://der.lbl.gov/microgrid-symposiums/jeju-2011/
K. hirose, a. Fukui, a. matsumoto, h. murai, t. takeda,
and t. matsumura, "Development of multiple power quality
supply system," IEEJ Trans. Electr. Electron. Eng., vol. 5,
no. 5, pp. 523-530, sept. 2010.
m. lamonica. (2012, nov.). microgrids keep power
flowing through sandy outages, MIT Tech. Rev. [online].
available: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/507106/
microgrids-keep-power-flowing-through-sandy-outages/
r. Panora, J. Gehret, m. m. Furse, and r. h. lasseter,
"real-world performance of a Certs microgrid in manhattan," IEEE Trans. Sustainable Energy, to be published.
IEEE Guide for Design, Operation, and Integration of
Distributed Resource Island Systems with Electric Power
Systems, ieee standard 1547.4, July 2011.

Biographies
Chad Abbey is with the hydro-Québec research institute,
Varennes, Canada.
David Cornforth is with the university of newcastle, australia.
Nikos Hatziargyriou is with the national technical university of athens, Greece.
Keiichi Hirose is with ntt Facilities, inc., tokyo, Japan.
Alexis Kwasinski is with the university of texas at austin.
Elias Kyriakides is with the university of Cyprus, nicosia, Cyprus.
Glenn Platt is with Csiro's energy transformed Flagship, mayfield, australia.
Lorenzo Reyes is with the university of Chile, santiago.
Siddharth Suryanarayanan is with Colorado state university, Fort Collins.
p&e

may/june 2014

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/a http://der.lbl.gov/microgrid-symposiums/jeju-2011/ http://www.technologyreview.com/view/507106/

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