Microgrids Explained: How They Work and Why Demand Is Surging
This article explains what microgrids are, how they function, and why they are becoming increasingly important. It traces the modern microgrid movement to Casa Pueblo in Puerto Rico, which kept power during the 2017 Hurricane Maria blackout. The piece details the four types of microgrids (campus, community, remote, resilience) and their core components: distributed energy resources, energy storage, a controller, and a point of common coupling. It highlights that AI data centers are now the fastest-growing driver of microgrid demand, with fuel cell deals exceeding $7.65 billion in early 2026. Real-world examples include UC San Diego's 92% self-powered campus and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar's resilient base microgrid. The article concludes that extreme weather, rising electricity costs, and an aging grid are pushing microgrids from a niche technology to a mainstream energy solution.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection