Community and Small-Scale Grid Innovation - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 186

notes, “the fact that they are small and simple does not mean they are not useful and
important” (Nordman 2010 p. 1). A nanogrid can power a car, a smart building, a campus,
or a remote village (Nordman 2010 ; Nordman et al. 2012 ; Hardesty 2014 ) . Nanogrids
simultaneously provide a more conventional and more radical approach to electricity than
other microgrids. They are more conventional than other microgrids because “they do
not directly challenge utilities” (Hardesty 2014 ) . Perhaps because they seem relatively
nonthreatening to utilities and other legacy actors, nanogrids have not been opposed with
the same arguments about “real or imagined complexity” that other microgrids have
encountered (Nordman 2010 ). Peter Asmus, the person who popularized (and perhaps
invented) the word “locavolt,” claims that “nanogrids represent a larger market opportunity
because they are … less challenging to the status quo and less subject to the technical
challenges facing larger distribution networks” than other microgrids (Lundin 2014b ) .
At the same time, nanogrids are technologically radical in their tendency to rely on
direct current (DC) and could be politically radical in their reversal of the top-down
approach that characterizes the energy system (Asmus and Lawrence 2014 ) . Using DC
minimizes conversion losses, and working directly with consumers could help to maximize
the likelihood that the system responds to local needs. These modular building blocks can
support a wide variety of energy applications that are relevant to consumers ranging from
the U.S. DoD to communities that have no access to electricity. Navigant Research has
forecast that nanogrid vendors will generate $59.5 billion by 2025 (Asmus and Lawrence
2014 ; Lundin 2014b , ). They cite the increased integration of electric vehicles to provide
emergency electricity or storage to reduce peak demand from buildings as an illustration of
one of the more radical applications of nanogrids.
The DoD, which is the largest energy consumer in the United States (Chen 2012a ) and
has strong motivation to ensure energy security for its bases and field operations, is testing
nanogrids on several bases. Its nanogrid tests range from a building-integrated photovoltaic
roofattheMarine CorpsStation inYuma,Arizona toaplug-invehicle demonstration atthe
Los Angeles Air Force Base (Chen 2012a ). Both of these projects illustrate the flexibility
of nanogrids. The plug-in vehicle and the building can operate independently of the larger
system, and also can be integrated into the larger system when such integration is useful.
The DoD's SPIDERS program demonstrates a more programmatic approach, and focuses
primarily on protecting “critical infrastructure from power loss in the event of physical
or cyber disruptions” (Sandia National Laboratories 2012 p. 1). The plan is to design
and develop three increasingly complex microgrids that would allow the sites to maintain
critical operations if the regular electricity supply were interrupted. The first SPIDERS
installation will demonstrate the simplicity that characterizes nanogrids, with the second
and third gradually integrating a more complex portfolio into each microgrid.