Grid : Microgrids offer cities resiliency, reliability, accessibility

Published 9 July 2014

A majority of the world’s population now lives in cities, which consume 75 percent of the world’s resources and emit most of its greenhouse gases. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, an additional three billion people will move into these dense, resource-intense urban environments. The focus in cities like New York or New Orleans is on building infrastructure to make cities more resilient when faced with extreme weather or natural disasters — by providing backup power during outages, as well as helping to ease systems back online as outages end. Microgrid researchers are taking up this challenge by developing an energy solution with the potential to strengthen all three critical factors of energy in a livable city: resiliency, reliability and accessibility.

A majority of the world’s population now lives in cities, which consume 75 percent of the world’s resources and emit most of its greenhouse gases. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, an additional three billion people will move into these dense, resource-intense urban environments.

“Projecting from current trends, you realize that we should have a plan for how this change unfolds,” says Mike Corradini, director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute and professor of engineering physics.

As urban growth increases stress on global systems, Corradini is among a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers working to develop solutions that contribute to the livability of future cities. When it comes to urban energy – and its ever-increasing consumption — Corradini believes resiliency, reliability and accessibility will be critical factors in ensuring a sustainable supply.

“When you’re talking about a livable city, you’re not just talking about energy or energy use,” he says. “It’s a combination of how we use water, create food, construct buildings, and transport people or goods. These are all largely connected and interdependent.”

Of course, different cities have different energy needs, which means that livable city solutions tend to vary according to local need.

Eric Anderson writes in In Common, published by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that in the United States, for example, where infrastructure and utility support have made access to electricity nearly ubiquitous, plans for the future tend to focus on creating energy systems with greater efficiency and reliability. The focus in cities like New York or New Orleans is on building infrastructure to make cities more resilient when faced with extreme weather or natural disasters — by providing backup power during outages, as well as helping to ease systems back online as outages end.

In developing countries, however, electrification systems are often weak or nonexistent and the focus tends to lie elsewhere. In Uganda, where less than nine percent of the population has access to electricity, communities prioritize the development of individual off-grid solutions that have the flexibility to grow and meet future needs.

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