California Asks: What is the Monetary Value of Reliability and Other Microgrid Benefits?

How do you place a monetary value on microgrid reliability and other benefits, such as providing greenhouse gas reductions and boosting public confidence?

California wants to place a monetary value on microgrid reliability.

That’s just one of the many issues being explored as the California Energy Commission (CEC) continues to map out microgrid policy in a series of workshops.

As part of the mapping project, the commission plans to release a survey in the near future, and hopes that 150 to 250 industry members provide input. In addition, the commission will soon complete a website that focuses specifically on the microgrid roadmap issues, with an eye toward finishing the roadmap in October.

The overall goal of the microgrid roadmap effort, said Mike Gravely, deputy division chief of the CEC’s research and development division, is to identify ways to commercialize microgrids and help vendors experience success.

Most of the microgrids Gravely has looked at focus on reliability and service, and making money is a secondary issue, he said. “Now the question is, ‘How to make money?'” He wants to develop a way to monetize some of the benefits of microgrids. “We need to come up with business cases that show the costs and the value streams,” he explained. “What’s the value of providing reliability?” Continued on Microgrid Knowledge.