IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization advancing technology for humanity, today announced the public availability of a new report that it commissioned, detailing how energy storage, distributed generation and microgrid technologies stand to evolve given the rapid deployment of the smart grid across the globe over the next five years. Based on a survey of 460 global smart grid executives in September 2012, Zpryme developed the report, “Power Systems of the Future: The Case for Energy Storage, Distributed Generation, and Microgrids,” now available on IEEE Smart Grid web portal, or from here, Zpryme Zpryme.

“The smart grid is the premier technological and economic platform to build the 21st century, and this report details how energy storage, distributed generation and microgrid technologies are both fueling and feeding off of the smart grid engine,” said Andres Carvallo, a member of the Zpryme smart grid advisory board and executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Proximetry.

Three “overall conclusions” are defined in the Zpryme report:

• Private- and public-sector funding for microgrid, distributed generation and grid-level storage research and development (R&D) and projects/pilots would contribute to more cost-effective solutions, inform better business cases and help reveal best practices around installation, application and optimization for the technologies.

• Europe is the global leader in adopting and utilizing distributed generation and microgrids, while North America is prominent in storage technology. The report says that these regions stand to “take the lead when it comes to developing and deploying next-generation distributed energy systems.”

• Energy management systems, distributed management systems and communications technologies are identified in the report as the critical enabling technologies for energy storage, distributed generation and microgrids, as well as advanced grid services such as net metering, load aggregation and real-time energy monitoring that in many cases will be delivered in the cloud.

“Key, interrelated themes emerged from the research behind the report, such as the necessity of customer demand to drive the market for the three technologies and, in turn, the need for customer feedback to infuse their R&D strategies,” continued Carvallo. “In this way, the report illuminates how storage, distributed generation and microgrid technologies can support important new revenue streams for manufacturers, utilities, end users and third-party providers alike, spurring new global markets for software and systems that integrate these technologies into modern and future energy systems.”

Survey respondents prioritized the benefits of each technology area. Energy storage’s “first-best benefit” was identified as the ability to provide supplemental power to meet peak demands. Distributed generation’s top benefit was identified as targeted addition of supply. And ability to meet local demand was listed as the top benefit of microgrids. The Zpryme report shows that the importance of all three technology areas is rising along with global interest in more efficiently managing energy consumption, growing electricity demand and increasing awareness of the cost of service interruptions.

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