Engineering360: "Energy management in microgrids"

At the level of complexity discussed in this article, a micro-grid is essentially the same as a typical utility grid. The connection to the utility grid can be viewed as the intertie from one utility's grid to adjacent utility grids. In either case the same operating principles can apply. The language employed in this article uses a lot of fancy words and phrases to describe fairly basic functions and purposes.

What the article completely ignores is the possibility for an improper connection with the utility to cause disruption of the utility's own stability. On the other hand there are a number of documented instances when a micro-grid became the sole source of power to sections of a utility's grid when a disaster had interrupted power generation and/or transmission.

A separate topic beyond this is the topic of DC versus AC interconnections, with the stability provided by avoiding the lock-step frequency control.

--JMM