Tag: grid architecture

Mar 25 2016 by David Breecker

SteamaCo Joins MSL for Rural Energy Solutions

Posted in energy access, energy poverty, MSL news, partners, Uncategorized

SteamaCo, a leading venture-backed microgrid monitoring and payments platform based in Kenya, has joined MSL and its efforts to drive systems-level innovation in clean “energy poverty” solutions, for those lacking dependable access to electricity. SteamaCo has built more than 30 rural microgrids throughout the developing world. The company’s technology enables microgrid owners to monitor performance remotely, and capture consumer payments via mobile phone-based payment platforms, thereby overcoming many of the major challenges of keeping rural microgrids functioning reliably and profitably.

As stated in a 2015 article in The Guardian, “This simple but fundamental transition stands to make investment in solar micro-grids a truly compelling prospect, bringing electricity to millions and giving local entrepreneurs the tools to thrive.” (more…)


Dec 15 2015 by David Breecker

Clean Coalition Joins MSL

Posted in MSL news, partners

We are pleased to announce that the Clean Coalition has joined MSL as a Member institution. The Clean Coalition is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid through technical, policy, and project development expertise. As such, it complements MSL’s goals and approach.

More specifically, the Coalition drives policy innovation to remove barriers to procurement and interconnection of distributed energy resources, and to establish market mechanisms that realize the full potential of integrating these solutions. The Clean Coalition also collaborates with utilities and municipalities to create near-term deployment opportunities that prove the technical and financial viability of local renewables and other DER. These deployment opportunities may offer collaborative opportunities with MSL’s demonstration project agenda. (more…)


Apr 27 2015 1Commentby David Breecker

MSL Director Helps “Reinvent the Grid”

Posted in MSL news, R&D, research

MSL Managing Director David Breecker participated in the Santa Fe Institute’s invitational workshop, “Reinventing the Grid: Designing Resilient, Adaptive and Creative Power Structures” in April. Co-hosted by two visiting researchers on sabbatical at SFI, Seth Blumsack (Pennsylvania State University) and Paul Hines (University of Vermont), along with SFI internal faculty member Cris Moore, the workshop brought together a fascinatingly diverse set of experts from a range of relevant fields to consider the future of our power systems. These included industry and utility representatives, research scientists and engineers, policy and regulatory experts, ecologists, search algorithm designers, statistical physicists, and network theorists among others.

As the abstract states, “Electric power grids are complex infrastructures that operate across large swaths of space and time. A power grid’s planning and operation timescales can span up to twelve orders of magnitude: from milliseconds to decades. The largest networks, such as the Eastern US and European Interconnections, synchronize power plants across many thousands of kilometers. And this spatial integration is increasing: in many locations, the locus of control is moving from local electric utilities to regional entities. (more…)