Women in Microgrids: Margaret Miller, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, ENGIE North America

As you may know, March was Women’s History Month. We fully believe women should be recognized and celebrated year-round, but we also think it was the perfect time to kick off our Q&A series spotlighting some of the incredible women who are making big impacts in the world of microgrids.

In the first of our three-part series of Women in Microgrids, we sat down with Margaret Miller, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at ENGIE North America, to learn more about how she broke into the field, the work she’s doing at ENGIE, what she’s looking forward to, where she finds her inspiration, and so much more.

Margaret also holds the position as MRC’s board chair, which she will be transitioning out of in April. We’re extremely grateful for the commitment and leadership Margaret has provided the MRC during her tenure.

Can you tell us more about your role and ENGIE’s work in microgrids?

ENGIE North America is an energy solutions company focused on both behind-the-meter and in-front of the meter renewable and low carbon solutions that support customers through their clean energy transition. ENGIE NA is one of the largest providers of energy savings and resiliency solutions to the public sector and that is where most of our microgrid activity is focused. My role as Government and Regulatory Affairs Director is to help shape and influence energy policy to support ENGIE NA’s future growth.

How did you get into the renewable energy/microgrids space?

I started my career in the energy industry at the California ISO (CAISO) which allowed me to interface with energy market participants across a broad range of technologies and focus areas. This was integral in building my professional network which has opened many doors for me over the past 10 years.

Why is the advancement of microgrids so important?

As a society, the need for safe, clean, and reliable sources of electricity has never been higher. Power disruptions are on the rise, whether due to extreme weather events or public safety power shut offs like we experience in California. There is no question these events are happening more frequently and are having a larger impact on communities. As a result, communities are under increasing pressure to adapt and find new ways to ensure that critical operations are not impacted by grid outages. The utilities don’t have the bandwidth to solve all these problems on their own. This is where third-party microgrids come in.

What are you looking forward to in the immediate future and further down the road when it comes to microgrids and distributed energy resources (DERs) in general?

The Inflation Reduction Act provides incredible incentives and opportunity for growth for the clean energy sector across the board, including microgrids, that will make clean energy cheaper for customers as compared to fossil fuel alternatives. It also addresses environmental inequities with incentives to drive investments into communities that have borne the brunt of the environmental impact of our fossil energy system. 

In the near and longer-term, while as an industry we have made progress, we have a lot of work to do to further the goal on achieving the commercialization of microgrids across the U.S. As a developer of microgrids, we would like to work towards, among other things, tariffs that compensate microgrids for services provided and the ability to develop multiple customer microgrids.

Is there a particular project that you or your team have worked on recently that sticks out that you’d like to tell us more about? What was it? Why? 

While ENGIE NA has done some cool microgrid projects, UC Santa Barbara is my alma mater, so I am a bit biased towards one of our projects in Santa Barbara. The Santa Barbara USD microgrid project will include 4.2MWs of solar across 14 sites and six microgrids with a total of 2.5MW of solar and 1.9MWh of battery storage. This project will support critical loads on the campus, including lighting, food storage, and data and communications, while reducing  utility bills. The project will also provide backup power to safe spaces used by the community during outages, including first responders, students, and families. This project will benefit the school district but also the entire community.

Any advice for women looking to break into the microgrids and alternative energy space?

There are more opportunities in this industry than ever before so if you are thinking about it now is the time! Build your networks and let people know your interests. Take every opportunity to learn about what is going on in the industry. Sometimes you may need to start with a less-than-ideal role to get to the opportunity you really want.

Have you had any mentor/mentee relationships throughout your career that have influenced your work?

I have been lucky to work for some good people over the years and I have learned something from every single one of them. I mostly admire the leaders I have worked for that have a gift for recognizing each individual’s talents and empowering and inspiring the people who work for them. This is a rare skill set that often goes undervalued in the corporate world.

Where do you look for inspiration/motivation outside of work? 

Outside of work, fitness and health is my passion. While I always see my fitness as a work-in-progress, daily exercise keeps me sane and more focused.

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Next up in our series we’ll spotlight Jana Gerber, President of North America Microgrids at Schneider Electric. Stay tuned!