Four Reasons Microgrids Haven’t Taken Off Yet

Microgrids collaborate copasetically with distributed renewables, they guard against widespread blackouts, and they insure institutions against the losses those blackouts cause, so why aren’t they sprouting up everywhere?

A posse of microgrid developers pondered that question yesterday at the Microgrid 2018 conference in Chicago. Development can be slow because of planning, design and construction, they agreed, but the languor in microgrid development also has to do with a lack of understanding.

“It’s a simple discussion to get people excited,” said Michael Carlson, the president of Smart Grid North America for Siemens. “We can walk in and almost anywhere (people) are embracing the discussion—but moving forward there’s a lot of understanding that has to go along with it.”

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