Evaluation of the costs and benefits of Microgrids with consideration of services beyond energy supply

This paper examines a number of alternate business cases for Microgrids based on a variety of benefits that Microgrids have been reported to provide. The authors draw on proven methodologies for quantifying benefits and demonstrate how provision of services relating to social/environmental and technical benefits can support an economic business case for Microgrid development. The benefits are viewed in terms of a framework that relates stakeholders and benefits, and the methodology is tested in a case study based on an extant Canadian Microgrid. The potential impact of each benefit is calculated, and a break-even analysis is conducted to determine the value each benefit should provide to make the Microgrid feasible for stakeholders. These derived values are then compared to some typical market or contract values.