Microgrids

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All these yellow and red alerts, especially in the Visayas, tell us that in this era of renewable energy, particularly solar, we should seriously encourage microgrids. We need to be capable of providing for our own power needs and detaching ourselves from the main power grid when it blacks out.

I first heard about the microgrid concept from Lean Leviste many years ago. The now congressman from Batangas was, at the time, trying to develop a pioneering venture involving solar energy.

Lean called me one morning and asked to see me. We met at the Starbucks near my condo and he explained to me a hurdle he is facing in his mission.

Lean wanted to convince people about the viability of a solar installation coupled with storage batteries. He wanted to do a proof-of-concept in a remote barangay in Mindoro that is not attached to any grid.

But the local electric cooperative wouldn’t let him, insisting he would encroach in their exclusive franchise area. When Lean asked them if they had plans of connecting the barangay, they said no, because it was so remote and very expensive to string up to their network.

Yun naman pala. But the coop insisted they would not let Lean do his plan just the same. I guess the coop was afraid Lean would successfully electrify the remote barangay with 24/7 power at a rate lower than what the coop was charging their members.

Lean asked me if it was alright for him to seek a national franchise that would allow him to electrify off-grid barangays to avoid having again his experience with the Mindoro coop. I told him to go ahead.

The coops were bullying him and unreasonably preventing progress. In the end, Lean proved he had more political muscle and got his franchise passed. I lost track of what happened next but Lean made a good point about the role of microgrids in our rural electrification efforts.

A microgrid is a localized, self-sufficient energy system that can generate, store and distribute electricity to a specific group of users. It can operate while connected to the main utility grid or seamlessly disconnect to function independently as an energy “island” during power outages.

There are two types of microgrids: isolated/off-grid microgrids (for remote areas) like what Lean wanted to do for that barangay in Mindoro and grid-tied microgrids that are integrated with the main utility.

Under normal conditions, a grid-tied microgrid operates in parallel with the main utility grid, and can both draw power from and feed power back into the central system.

During a blackout, the microgrid’s controller instantly detects a voltage drop or outage on the main utility grid. It physically disconnects the microgrid from the failing main grid, in milliseconds.

The microgrid instantly switches to its local energy assets — drawing power from its solar panels, wind turbines and battery energy storage systems (BESS) — to keep local lights, businesses or critical facilities running completely unaffected by the wider blackout.

There is another good reason to use microgrids in this era of rising solar and wind energy use.

National grids can become unstable when large, fluctuating volumes of solar and wind power are suddenly fed in. Grid-connected microgrids act as shock absorbers, localized defense systems and digital support networks for old-fashioned centralized power grids.

For end-users, microgrids localize energy generation, utilizing local battery storage and “islanding” capabilities to keep localized power running when the broader national grid fails.

There is another advantage of microgrids: By generating electricity closer to where it is actually consumed, microgrids bypass the energy loss and vulnerability associated with long-distance transmission lines.

This brings me to Iloilo City. When I was there the other year, the then mayor Jerry Treñas was complaining about the frequent power failures affecting the BPO industry there.

There are over 500 megawatts of power generating facilities in Panay and Iloilo City’s peak demand is only 135 MW. But the power plants there are rather unreliable. The Visayas grid connection, on the other hand, means competing with the demand of the entire Visayas and Mindanao areas.

MORE Power, Iloilo City’s distribution utility, has been negotiating to lease localized assets, like the 60-MW Panay Power Corp. diesel plant, as an emergency islanding mechanism to keep local city lights on even if the rest of Panay goes dark.

Provisions of EPIRA aside, perhaps it would be best to allow Ricky Razon, who owns MORE Power, to invest in solar farms to create a microgrid for Iloilo City. A 300 MW solar power with battery microgrid facility is very doable.

In Puerto Princesa, Palawan, the Sabang Renewable Energy Corp. (SREC) is an operational independent microgrid. It combines a 1.4-MW solar array, a 2.3-MWh battery storage facility and a 1.2-MW diesel generator to power the local community and tourism establishments completely off the main grid.

To improve investor interest in our industrial zones, PEZA should incorporate microgrids in their areas. This addresses concerns of potential investors about the reliability of our power generation and transmission system.

Microgrids will be the future of energy. The old paradigm of a centralized power system is fading. The traditional electricity grids were not built to handle the massive demand from Artificial Intelligence data centers.

Data centers must have their own microgrids. The future grid will be a decentralized web of highly intelligent, localized microgrids that can generate, manage and secure their own power independently.

Microgrids powered by renewable energy are ideal for our isolated islands that are still dependent on diesel generators for their electricity. Napocor operates 281 Small Power Utilities Group power plants across 125 islands and isolated communities.

Because these plants run primarily on expensive diesel fuel, they are a massive financial drain. Napocor faces recurring shortfalls of up to P1.4 billion per month. Converting these SPUGS into microgrids using renewable energy should help save some money.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco