This report considers different models, factors and considerations that support the success of public-private partnerships related to microgrids — miniature, self-contained power grids that can deploy the latest technologies and efficiently harness resources. “There is a need for not only more modern technologies but also more updated governance and more collaborative cost, risk, and resource-sharing,” the authors write. They seek to answer the following questions:
- “How can cooperation, financing, planning and shared responsibility be leveraged to strengthen the power grid for communities where vital national security functions share the grid with civilian communities?
- How can lines of communication be established and maintained for planning purposes and ongoing maintenance and improvements such that a microgrid can meet the essential needs of all users without becoming unaffordable?
- What should the relationship of the microgrid be with respect to the larger national power grid, and should certain resources be shared/integrated, and, if so, which ones, or should the microgrid exist solely as an island?”