With the increasing realization of the potential of distributed resources (DR) for optimizing the energy infrastructure in developed countries and for expanding/establishing the energy infrastructure in developing countries, broad and targeted surveys and scoping assessments have been performed for numerous clients. Such reports provide technical and economic assessment of the various distributed generation (DG) and distributed storage (DS) technologies in combination with appropriate power electronics for the full range of applications. The DG technologies included internal combustion engines, gas turbines, microturbines, fuel cells, stirling engines, thermoelectrics, photovoltaics, wind and small hydro. The DS technologies included batteries, flywheels and ultracapacitors, plus hydrogen generation and storage. Comparative assessments include vendor profiles, performance and economic parameters plus development and deployment status. The contribution of DR assets in addressing power disturbances (e.g. voltage sags, momentary outages, etc.) has become a prominent value element in the characterization of incentives for the deployment of these systems. Economic assessments address specific DR configurations and applications at the individual customer level in each of the industrial, commercial and residential markets. Applications have included stand-alone end-user systems that serve to optimize grid service and extend to networks of DR systems centrally controlled and dispatched for both end-user and grid benefits, plus microgrids of DR systems that may be off-grid or for regions without a grid.
