Microgrids Drive Energy Efficiency for College Campuses

Reducing Costs and Boosting Sustainability With Microgrids

In looking to meet rising energy demand, microgrids offer a budget-friendly option, especially when compared to the alternative, which can involve expanding and upgraded existing power lines.

“When you look at the cost of upgrading lines, the cost of adding additional line capacity, that can be really high. In those cases, having a microgrid can be very cost-effective,” Prabakar says.

For campuses generating power or harnessing wind to support the microgrid, there are additional financial benefits, especially when they partner with enabling organizations. “Imagine having a company that could provide you with reporting around your sustainability efforts and then be able to purchase carbon credits to balance out the whole usage,” Gillum says.

If you’re producing energy for the microgrid, that can even be a revenue source. “You can optimize the power generation locally, do some peak load shifting and shaving, and maybe sell some back to the grid,” Kabalan says.

Microgrids can also support schools’ sustainability objectives. “With a microgrid, you can move around those AI loads to match efficiencies of the grid. Maybe I move my IT loads based on time and demand, coordinating the IT loads to capture higher efficiencies. That can translate into optimal fuel usage,” Prabakar says.

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Experts see a growing role for microgrids on campus.

“We’re just getting started with AI,” Gillum says. “Colleges aren’t going to stand up just one AI solution; there may be 10 or more across the campus. How do you get the power there? The microgrid is going to be the only thing that’s going to be able to support that.”

Beyond powering AI and supporting energy innovation, a microgrid on campus offers a learning opportunity. “As the grid becomes more distributed, we need the engineers and the highly skilled labor to run and maintain it. That education piece is pretty important,” Kabalan says.

At the Center for Microgrid Research, for example, “we are educating the engineers that we need to run the grid of the 21st century,” he says. “We’re going to cover that in the textbook, and guess what? We’re going down to the basement to check out how this equipment actually works in real life. It provides a very unique, hands-on, real-world experience for our students.”