Microgrids can be characterized as a strategic network of distributed energy resources (DER).  These include supply-side resources like solar PV, wind, diesel gensets, CHP plants, and energy storage.  Increasingly, microgrids are looking at demand-side DER to reduce the load.  This ‘negawatt’ approach reduces the need for energy storage and increases the amount of variable renewable energy the microgrid can handle.

Distributed Energy Resources present enormous opportunity, and can be put anywhere on a microgrid or utility grid. However, the utility grid is not designed to get value from DER.