Microgrid architecture — generation, storage, loads, and the controller — grid-connected vs. islanded operation, the role of the microgrid controller, and the campus, critical-facility, and community-resilience applications microgrids are actually built for.
A microgrid is defined less by what generation it uses than by one capability: the ability to intentionally disconnect from the utility grid at a single point of common coupling and keep serving some or all of its own loads. This module builds the foundation the rest of this program's microgrid-related content assumes: how generation, storage, loads, and a controller fit together architecturally, what actually changes between grid-connected and islanded operation, why a grid-forming source is required once islanded, and why reconnecting isn't as simple as closing a breaker back.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a standard grid-tied inverter's anti-islanding protection has to be replaced, not overridden, for a microgrid to island safely and legally — a distinction this module frames from the controls side, and one Module 7's IEEE 1547 content returns to from the interconnection-standards side.