Resilience by Design: Microgrid Solutions for Installation Energy

Microgrids are an increasingly promising solution for providing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) with energy resilience, or the ability to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to—and recover from disruptions in power at—fixed military installations. This state-of-the-art report combines an assessment of the voluminous research literature on grid-tied microgrids with critical insights gathered from engineers, scientists, government research and development program officials, and several energy and utility managers currently overseeing microgrid operations on DoD installations in the homeland. This report surveys the utility grid’s vulnerabilities; the benefits of a microgrid to the DoD energy assurance mission; advancements in microgrid design, planning, and simulation tools; theories and emerging systems for microgrid control; and several critical organizational considerations that can have an outsized effect on how a cutting-edge DoD microgrid is designed, funded, operated, and sustained over the long run.