The UCSD Microgrid – Showing the Future of Electricity … Today

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) employs a microgrid to manage 42 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including solar, cogeneration, and landfill-gas fuel cells. This system enables cost minimization and emergency 'islanding' from the main grid, while serving as a laboratory for optimizing local resource integration with market signals.

• The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) utilizes a microgrid to integrate and control 42 megawatts of generating capacity. This portfolio includes a central cogeneration plant, solar photovoltaic installations, and a fuel cell powered by natural gas reclaimed from a landfill. The system allows operators to minimize costs and provides the capability to "island" from the main grid to maintain power during emergencies, such as the September 2011 blackout affecting Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico.
• The UCSD microgrid serves as a living laboratory for experimenting with the management of local resources and optimizing their use in response to market signals from the larger electricity grid.

APA

RMI (2012). The UCSD Microgrid – Showing the Future of Electricity … Today. https://rmi.org/resources/the_ucsd_microgrid_showing_the_future_of_electricity_today/

Chicago

RMI. The UCSD Microgrid – Showing the Future of Electricity … Today. 2012. https://rmi.org/resources/the_ucsd_microgrid_showing_the_future_of_electricity_today/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=The UCSD Microgrid – Showing the Future of Electricity … Today |date=18 January 2012 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the_ucsd_microgrid_showing_the_future_of_electricity_today/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2012ucsd, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The UCSD Microgrid – Showing the Future of Electricity … Today}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2012}, month = jan, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the_ucsd_microgrid_showing_the_future_of_electricity_today/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }