Abstract
This study examined issues of planning and developing sustainable, resilient local government microgrids in the US. Such local government microgrids, also known as "town center microgrids," distribute energy to a cluster of physically separated facilities, such as those that provide essential services during and after an emergency, within a municipality.
Conceptually, these systems would provide a local source of generation and distribution that enables communities to operate these critical facilities. They include government buildings such as police and fire operations, public housing, and shelters and schools, but may also include private facilities such as groceries, gas stations, and pharmacies. They would operate independently of the grid should an electric grid outage occur, but also operate during normal operations ("blue sky" conditions).
The report details the critical issues and challenges identified during the study. The report concludes that while there are examples of successful single-site and campus, critical and noncritical facility microgrids, town center microgrids are far more complicated and less common. The results suggest the idea of a truly successful town center microgrid as an off-grid power supply for critical facilities remains difficult to achieve. State and local policy makers need to address a range of issues if the goal of increased electrical supply reliability, resilience, and where called for, sustainability are to be achieved.