MicroGrid Networks’ COO on how NYC’s grid can handle AI

Widespread electrification and the incoming AI electrical demand are poised to overwhelm New York City’s electrical grid—85% of which is underground, meaning renovation would necessitate permits and expensive wire replacements. Battery storage systems, like those built by MicroGrid Networks, can help alleviate the strain on the grid and save New Yorkers “a ton of money that we would all collectively have to pay to upgrade the grid [and] rip up the streets” via local taxes, according to Tim Dumbleton, MicroGrid Networks’ COO.

He will be speaking with Tech Brew for “The Case for Microgrids in Grid Modernization” panel at our upcoming event, Power Shift: Navigating the Intersection of Energy and Transportation. In a recent interview, Dumbleton explained how the company’s lithium ion batteries charge from the city’s electric grid during off-peak hours, like at night or in the middle of the day, and discharge energy to the grid when it needs it most, usually in the evening.

He uses the analogy of a highway: “If you have a four-lane highway, that four-lane highway is pretty crowded at rush hour. But in the middle of night, it’s pretty empty,” Dumbleton said.

“You could build an eight-lane highway, or if you could make people drive at night to their jobs, then you would never notice that there was a traffic problem,” he said. “Electrodes don’t care when they’re traveling over those wires. So batteries let us basically move the electrons at nighttime, and then we don’t have to double the number of highway lanes.”

Because New York City’s electrical grid is actually 70 interconnected smaller grids spread across its neighborhoods, MicroGrid Networks aims to build battery storage systems to support each of the small grids.

“Our facilities are designed to fit inside each one of those 70 electrical grids and benefit primarily that electrical grid,” Dumbleton said. “Each grid has to kind of support itself, and each grid needs one of these facilities in order to enhance that network’s capacity.”

So far, MicroGrid Networks has two sites—one in Maspeth, Queens, and one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn—and plans to start construction on seven more this summer.