Photo Credit: Schneider Electric
Interview with BALA VINAYAGAM
Vice President of the Microgrid Program, Schneider Electric
If we truly want to transform the grid in the future, which will have a co-existence of both this decarbonized, centralized generation transmission, it also needs to co-exist with a truly decentralized, heavily distributed and highly democratized distribution at work that needs to help bring the stability that is required in the grid.
Alan Ross
Hi, I’m Alan Ross. I'm the Managing Editor of APC Media, our APC Technology Productions, Transformer Technology, Power Systems Technology. We are here at the RE+ 2023 event in Las Vegas.
My next guest is Bala Vinayagam. He is the Vice President of the microgrid program for Schneider Electric.
You've been around this space from the utility perspective. You've got a PhD. What's your PhD in?
Bala Vinayagam
It's in electrical and computer engineering, primarily focused on long-term stability of the bulk power systems.
AR
Oh, wow. I love that. Okay, so you're the guy. Let's talk about what you've seen in the industry, not just focused on the grid part of it. We're here and it seems like we're at an inflection point, that we've crossed the Rubicon, where now we've got people saying, Hey, this will really work. We've got wind and solar and storage at scale. Now we're starting to talk about microgrids and how microgrids can come in, from a resiliency standpoint, from a utility standpoint, and more. Talk about where we are in terms of microgrids from the beginning to where we are today.
BV
I started my microgrid journey back in 2007 when I was working for General Electric. At the time, it was more of community microgrid. These are remote communities in which you are moving diesel by truck, pretty expensive. It's cold communities back in Canada. How do you really create power in those communities that will make them more self-reliant and reduce their dependency on diesel? That's how the first journey for me and microgrids started. At the time we started with hydrogen, there was hydrogen, a small wind farm, then you have diesel, where you can't run the wires to these remote communities. There are 2,000 people, for example in the Rockies. How do you really get these communities powered up? That's where the journey started for me first.
AR
Was it not also all those communities starting to be self-reliant, but they had the grid backing them up? They were always there. The grid had to be there when needed.
BV
Most of the time, it's very difficult to run the wires to these last miles from the grid perspective. They're probably potentially on the diesel for quite some time. It's very expensive. One, you need to keep them powered on for all the safety-related purposes. Two, the community has been in the middle of the transition to green infrastructure, so they may not want to run on diesel. The idea was to create an infrastructure for them that is sustainable and that keeps the power on for these remote communities, and especially the underserved communities.
AR
Now, microgrids have evolved. What was the next step from those small microgrids, for example a community, a college, a residential even sometimes, they moved and they started to change in application. What was the next leap?
BV
Before I explain what this evolution is, I think we need to take a step back and really look at the traditional bulk power system. For a very long time, we had a deregulated generation environment, a bulk transmission system, and a radial distribution system in which the loads are always planned and the generations are always dispatchable. Now, we all know that this is heavily dependent on the fossil fuels. So as the industry wants to deeply decarbonize its infrastructure, then you're going to bring in more solar, more wind. They both are not dispatchable. Now, your loads are changing. You are electrifying the buildings. You have fleet electrification, which means that loads are getting smaller with EVs. Your loads can no longer be planned. Your generation is no longer dispatchable. How do you manage this complexity that's going to come in as we continue to deeply decarbonize?
While [microgrids] allow the decentralized distributed network to produce, consume this power at the cheapest cost with proper backup and as a green infrastructure, they also provide the flexibility that will allow the grid to remain more stable when the sun goes down and the wind goes down.