Jos D.

Soto Rivera
July 31, 2014
Science Writing
Instructor Abigail Knopp

Diagnosis Complete. Now How Do We Administer The

Treatment?
Earth was just a normal girl when suddenly, she fell ill.
Doctor, the patient has a fever, damaged lungs and burn marks all over her body. -the nurse
shrilled.
Take her to the ICU, maybe were not too late.- said the Doctor grimly.
Professor Oneill Carillo, a doctor in electrical engineering at the UPRM, has known that
the Earth has had this disease for years. He also knows that there is no cure that could reset the
damage that has been done to the Earths body and cells. However, he has researched and
developed many courses of treatment that could stop the furthering of symptoms and potentially
save the Earths life. As you have probably guessed, the disease is societys reliance on fossil
fuels; the symptoms are global warming, air pollution and the thinning of the ozone layer; the
cells are all the species that live inside Earth and the best treatment is the implementation of
renewable energy systems.
Renewable energy systems are a form of Distributed Generators. DG are systems that
produce electrical energy from other energy sources and distribute the electrical energy to its
users[4]. You can think of electrical energy as milk and of DG systems as cows. Without cows,
you would have to go to the supermarket in order to have milk. If for example, you bought some

solar panels1 and installed them in your house, that system would be a DG unit, a cow, since it
distributes energy directly to you without having to rely on the electrical grid. If the cow can
provide you with all your milk, then there are no problems. However, some users2 drink all of
their milk and must go to the supermarket, electrical grid, to buy the milk they need3.

Application of Distributed Generation in a major scale. (http://www.enerknol.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/11/Distributed-Generation.gif)

Most loads4 connected to the electrical grid work by sending the electric company the
excess energy that they have at any point in time, and requesting electrical energy whenever
there is a deficit[2]. Basically, if you cant drink all of the milk you have, you have to sell it to
the supermarket or else the milk will spoil and if you do not have enough milk then you must
buy it from the supermarket. The electrical bill is established by taking the positive difference

1 Solar panels are only an example, DG units can produce electrical energy from most energy sources.
Ex: petroleum, coal, natural gas, wind, thermal, etc...

2 The user may be a commercial, residential or industrial entity.

3 This analogy is equivalent to: The user must connect to the electrical grid in order to receive the deficit
of energy from them.

4 Loads are anything that are provided and consume electrical energy. For example, houses are often
considered loads in terms of the power grid because the power grid must deliver energy to the house.

between how much milk you sell to the supermarket and how much milk you buy from it. This is
called net-metering.
However, there is a reason that the world is still sick, even though the treatment has been
found. The technical problem surges because the typical power grid can only take so many DG in
any particular region. The supermarket owner does not have enough money to buy milk from
each user in a region. Professor ONeill says that: This is a convenient design for the electrical
grid, since it eases their budget and increases the public's reliance on them for electrical energy.
The best solution would be to renovate the grid in order to house more cows, however this is
usually not economically feasible. Another solution would be for the user to be able to store the
excess milk and use it some other time however, a cheap method of doing this hasnt been
invented either. Many researchers have proposed that microgrids may be the solution. A
microgrid is a system of DGs that are all interconnected and are used to provide electrical
energy to the users in a region[1]. Microgrids may be connected to the grid if any emergency
were to occur and rely on it for energy or they could be completely independent from the grid[3].
Think of microgrids as a herd of cows, that make milk for the users in a region. You could decide
to go to the supermarket to buy or sell milk in case of emergencies. You could also decide not
wish to associate with them.

Example of a simple semi-autonomous Microgrid.

(http://www.pitt.edu/~erb84/ENGR0011_Assignments/wr_assignment2_1.jpg)
Earth started to exhibit more extreme symptoms.
Dose Earth with .6 billion microgrid systems! - barked the Doctor.
Earth did not immediately react. It took several decades before the symptoms disappeared, the
damage had been done and the disease was still surviving however, now her immune system
could combat it. Earth might actually get better.

Works and People Cited

Interview with Dr. Efran ONeill Carrillo, a doctor in Electrical Engineering that works in the
UPRM
[1]O'neill Carrillo, E., & Martinez-Cid, R. S. (2004). Sustainable Microgrids for Isolated
Systems.
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico: UPRM.
[2]O'neill Carrillo, E., Martinez-Cid, R., Garca-Perez, J., & Concepcin, M. (2002). Impact of
Distributed Generation in Electric Power Systems. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico: UPRM.
[3]THE ROLE OF MICROGRIDS IN HELPING TO ADVANCE THE NATIONS ENERGY
SYSTEM (n.d.). In U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved July 31, 2015, from
http://energy.gov/oe/services/technology-development/smart-grid/role-microgridshelping-advance-nation-s-energy-system
[4]What is Distributed Generation? (n.d.). In Bloomenergy. Retrieved July 31, 2015, from
http://www.bloomenergy.com/fuel-cell/distributed-generation/