Design and Operational Strategies of Urban Micro-grid that Benefits Utilities, Consumers as Well as the Environment

Renewable energy provides clean power and is gaining more and more share in the India’s electricity. With rising electricity demand, grid tariff and declining costs of renewables, micro-grids based on renewable sources and connected to the utility grid are becoming relevant particularly in the urban landscape. However, currently the functionality of these micro-grids is limited to providing power to the connected captive loads and pumping excess power into the grid. A true ecosystem will be created only when the utility grid is able to interact with the distributed micro-grids. Such micro-grids can support the utility grid during periods of peak demand and conversely absorb power if there is a drop in energy demand, provide reliable power to consumers, and reduce emissions that result from consumption of fossil fuel based power. Thus such micro-grids can benefit the utilities, the consumers as well as the environment. This paper discusses design and operational strategies to be considered to create an ecosystem where the micro-grids and the utility grid co-exist and serve a larger purpose of enabling the smart grid environment through interaction between the micro-grids and the utility grid.