This white paper describes a US DOE microgrid strategy — the program vision, objectives, and R&D targets in 5 to 10 years for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) Microgrid R&D Program. The vision is to facilitate the nation’s transitions to:
(1) a more resilient and reliable
(2) more decarbonized electricity infrastructure in which
(3) microgrids have a reduced cost to implement.
This strategy is developed in the context that the United States’ electricity delivery system is becoming more distributed in nature.
The electricity generation capacity in 10 years may be 30-50% distributed energy assets. Therefore, in this vision of the future, microgrids will support three main goals:
—Goal 1: Improved resiliency (compared to traditional back-up power options)
—Goal 2: Support of decarbonization (by acting as a point of aggregation for large number of distributed energy resources (DERs)
—Goal 3: Reduction of cost and promotion of equitable electricity access (compared to a future where carbon emissions have a cost).
To achieve the three primary goals the roadmap for the program includes objectives in three R&D broad categories: 1. Infrastructure and operations, 2. Analysis and tools, and 3. Institutional framework.
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