{"id":11817,"date":"2018-11-01T16:33:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T20:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/?p=11817"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:56:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:56:34","slug":"multi-user-microgrids-obstacles-to-development-and-recommendations-for-advancement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/2018\/11\/01\/multi-user-microgrids-obstacles-to-development-and-recommendations-for-advancement\/","title":{"rendered":"Multi-User Microgrids: Obstacles to Development and Recommendations for Advancement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The difficulties of (and solutions to) multi-user microgrid development<\/em><\/p>\n

By Kira Fabrizio, Richard Stuebi, Josef Benzaoui, Ryan Smith<\/p>\n

November 2018<\/p>\n

Multi-user microgrids (MUMs) are an emerging approach to electricity delivery that provide neighboring customers more resilient and reliable service, often independent of the local utility\u2019s grid. Despite this, there are few in operation or development. In a whitepaper written in partnership with the Northeast Clean Energy Council, Institute for Sustainable Energy (now the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability) researchers identify key barriers preventing MUM development and suggest potential solutions to these barriers.<\/p>\nDownload Report<\/a>\n

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Key Findings<\/h3>
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    \n
  • Some of the most common obstacles for the development of MUMS include:\n
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    • Difficulty in establishing appropriate monetary value of improved resilience<\/li>\n
    • Preferential rights for utilities to cross public rights-of-way<\/li>\n
    • Limited understanding of viable MUM ownership models<\/li>\n
    • Lack of leadership to drive solutions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Strategies that have helped address those barriers and lead to MUM development include:\n
          \n
        • Ensuring utility ownership or strong utility participation<\/li>\n
        • Tailoring business models to each situation, such as phased development to spread costs over time<\/li>\n
        • Increasing overall awareness and understanding of MUMs and standardizing MUM design and implementation are key to an increase in development<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          IGS Research | November 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[689,332],"tags":[636,626,667,666,669,544,668],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11817"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24734,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions\/24734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/igs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}