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A Guide to Growth in Microgrids for Electrical Contractors

Oct. 12, 2021
A soon-to-be-released handbook about how contractors can cash in on microgrid installations generated quite a few questions about local regulations and gatekeepers in this emerging market.

Kevin Wright’s session at NECA on a soon-to-be-released handbook about how contractors can cash in on microgrid installations generated quite a few questions about local regulations and gatekeepers in this emerging market.

Wright, the president of ProtoGen (www.ProtoGenenergy.com) and developer of The Electrical Contractor’s Practical Guide to Microgrid Development slated for publication this December by ELECTRI International  (www.electri.org), NECA’s research arm, said the microgrid market is expected to grow 20% each year to an estimated $8 billion in 2029.

He said the publication will familiarize electrical contractors with a new market opportunity that’s being fueled in part by increased interest in off-the-grid power options, a desire to incorporate utility-scale renewables into the U.S. power grid, and potential federal funding from the Infrastructure Bill now under debate in Congress.

Wright believes two of the biggest challenges currently restricting the growth of microgrids are a regulatory thicket at the local level that often sparks debates about how to bring the power generated by microgrids to end-users and the perception by some utilities that microgrids installed by commercial customers or third-party power providers are a threat to their primary role of being a provider of electrical power.

In its promotion for this session, NECA said electrical contractors are ideally positioned to be part of the conversation on microgrids, but that they are not typically are not involved before the construction phase of a microgrid project. “ELECTRI International has funded the creation of a practical guide to help ECs not only bid these jobs more accurately, effectively, and confidently, but also allow them to better recognize and develop opportunities with new and existing customers, the association said. The guide brings together a conceptual framework about microgrids with a non-nonsense walkthrough of the project lifecycle, complete with tips and advice from industry experts representing developers, component suppliers, software integrators, educators, utilities, and more.”

About the Author

Jim Lucy | Editor-in-Chief, Electrical Wholesaling & Electrical Marketing

Over the past 40-plus years, hundreds of Jim’s articles have been published in Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and Electrical Construction & Maintenance magazine on topics such as electric vehicles, solar and wind development, energy-efficient lighting and local market economics. In addition to his published work, Jim regularly gives presentations on these topics to C-suite executives, industry groups and investment analysts.

He launched a new subscription-based data product for Electrical Marketing that offers electrical sales potential estimates and related market data for more than 300 metropolitan areas. In 1999, he published his first book, “The Electrical Marketer’s Survival Guide” for electrical industry executives looking for an overview of key market trends.

While managing Electrical Wholesaling’s editorial operations, Jim and the publication’s staff won several Jesse H. Neal awards for editorial excellence, the highest honor in the business press, and numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors. He has a master’s degree in communications and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N.J. (now Rowan University) and studied electrical design at New York University and graphic design at the School for Visual Arts.

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