THETRANSFORMING GRID:Microgrids on the rise, from AVEC to Ocracoke to Innovation Pointe

摘要

In the midst of the past decade's shale gas boom, an electric cooperative in Oklahoma suddenly found itself with a glut of far-flung industrial load that co-op officials say was like serving 350 Walmarts in the middle of nowhere."In 2011, our peak was 110 megawatts," says David Swank, CFX) of Central Electric Cooperative. "We received requests that would have tripled our demand. And it was a challenging load for us—very high on the front end, and falling off quickly."Meeting this volatile, isolated demand with conventional grid infrastructure could have cost upwards of $100 million, Swank says.The dilemma got folks at the Stillwater-based co-op thinking about non-traditional approaches to serving the load.