There’s a never ending need for electricity, and certain worries that go along with our dependency on it. Microgrids offer a solution. They bring plans for energy independence, lower expenses for energy production and distribution, and offer peace of mind during disaster.

But what are microgrids on their most basic level, and how do they promise these benefits? Here’s a breakdown and overview of what a microgrid is, its purpose, and how they’re able to operate.

What is a Microgrid?

Think of energy grids as a pie chart. There’s an aging, national energy grid that we all use, and that takes up just about the whole chart. That means one cyberattack or glitch in the system, and the whole thing does down. A microgrid essentially breaks up the national power grid into smaller pieces. The more microgrids in the network, the more stable it is. These microgrids operate independently; they don’t rely on the national grid to generate and distribute electricity.

How Does a Microgrid Work?

Before you can fully know how a microgrid works, we need to look at how the larger power grid works.

Starting at the most basic level, let’s look at the coffee pot in your kitchen. That connects to your outlet, which runs to your circuit breaker, which runs to the power line in the street. Those power lines don’t go where you’d expect. In a sense, they go back to a power plant, but in a much more intricate way. Power lines are connected to the grid: electrical lines that run from home to home, from power station to power station (to allow voltage changes), from power plant to power plant, creating a system. If one power plant stops producing enough energy, others will start to pick up the slack.

Microgrids are all of those things, but on a much smaller scale. Microgrids can run off of individual power plants, backup batteries, and most notably, solar energy. They provide energy independence for smaller areas.

Why Are Microgrids So Important?

As an example, let’s look at the most recent hurricane disaster: Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, and they’ve been without power for extended periods of time. We’re in an era where that’s simply unacceptable. People have medications that need to be refrigerated, temperatures cause heat stroke among other things, and it puts a wrench in the gears for everyone’s way of life. If Puerto had established microgrids, they could have seen near-immediate relief by restoring one microgrid at a time.

They’re important to developing areas of the world who require energy independence and a reliable source of electricity. Centralized power grids can even run off of 100% renewable energy, decreasing pollution. Other benefits include:

• * Blackout Prevention: Unless a microgrid is struck directly (at which point, the major grid would kick into effect), you’ll retain power during a blackout. When you hear about millions being left in the dark, it’s unnerving. Affected areas could decrease if microgrids are put in place.

• * Cost Cutting: Electricity is expensive and taken for granted. It isn’t until a power outage occurs, or when someone opens an exponentially-high electricity bill that they truly remember how crucial and sparse electricity is. Running power from a microgrid means there’s less travel, quicker delivery, requiring less generation and expenses. They’ve been the answer to lowering energy consumption, but certain factors get in the way of putting them everywhere.

• * Emergency Use: Places like hospitals have their own backup generators for patients on life support and who require immediate medical care. Doctors and nurses can’t help their patients without electricity (in most cases). Whenever an emergency strikes, you lose access to crucial information like the news, heat in your home, and your food supply could diminish if the power is out for too long, causing perishables to spoil. Your microgrid, in an emergency, can be the difference between panic and tranquility.

How do Microgrids Connect to Large Power Grids?

Think about a laptop charger with an LED light. When you pull it out of the wall, most models will still run that light for about five seconds until it fades. With a microgrid, it’s just like disconnecting something from the wall, only, it continues to run without the superior power source.

Depending on how a microgrid operates, it can manually or automatically switch from the superior grid depending on the conditions. If the power goes out, without missing a beat, the microgrid stops relying on the superior grid and produces enough energy on its own.

How Powerful are Microgrids?

Microgrids can operate independently, or simple supplement the energy coming in from power stations. Not all are big enough to sustain a community. Most microgrids are still ongoing projects. Towards their infancy in 2013, there were only 60 ongoing microgrid projects, equalling a total of 1gw of power production. In the grand scheme, those are relatively low figures.

Every microgrid is different. Microgrids typically power small areas, keeping them sustained properly, depending on the amount of energy being used. They can also be used to power larger areas, though at some point, large microgrids become redundant.

What Are the Future of Microgrids?

Since microgrids are local projects for local growth, they’re on state and town levels of government and planning. Microgrids could grow at a quick rate and provide energy independence for most of America in the coming years.

Ironically, a lot of experts believe we’ll be seeing microgrids in their own system (a larger grid, but made up of independent grids). We’ll see where that leads in terms of energy independence and reliability.