micro and MEGA represent two trends which largely influence the decisions and the evolutionary process of power grids.
The trends are both aimed at enabling very high penetration of renewable energy sources
in the electric power system, from two perspectives:
- micro focuses on local solutions, while
- MEGA focuses on system or even intra-system wide solutions
ISGAN Annex 6 has dedicated an activity to study the micro and the MEGA trends, with the objective to present a critical assessment of these trends, based on the questions:
- Does one trend outcompete the other?
- Does increased investments from one perspective increase the need for investments
from the other perspective? - To what extent can one perspective benefit from the other perspective?
The intention is not to proclaim one solution being superior to another, rather to provide well
informed insights to the needs of considering both perspectives during the planning
and decision-making process for the sustainable development of the wider energy
system.
The outcome of this activity are communicated through publications, presentations and workshops, with contributions from a large number of parties:
- In the Policy Brief: micro vs MEGA – trends in power system development, the condensed knowledge from this activity was published for the 11th Clean Energy Ministerial hosted by Saudi Arabia, September 2020
- In the Discussion Paper (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11569.61287), the full report is provided from this activity, including detailed insights into the micro & MEGA trends and their perspectives together with experiences from around the World.
- Workshop and meeting in Montreux
A highly successful event, gathering a total of 30 participants, with presentations (available here) from Italy, India, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
The participants at these two meeting days have shown a high level of engagement and it has been highly valuable to learn from each other. In short, we can conclude that these meetings were very productive and successful in gathering a large amount of knowledge.