Many modern manufacturing plants generate some amount of electricity, either from solar panels on the roof or diesel generators or natural gas turbines. Some are trying to meet sustainability goals, others are working to ensure they'll have the power they need to run production.

Great power not only comes with great responsibility (my apologies to Stan Lee), it comes with managment challenges. Making use of on-site power typically demands a microgrid to cycle betwen power from utilities and the electricity generated by other resources.

As part of IndustryWeek's regular Production Pulse livestream series, we invited several experts to discuss what microgrids are, why they're growing and what to expect in the near term.

Speakers were:

• Jana Gerber, president of Schneider Electric's North American microgrid business
• Rod Walton, managing editor of Microgrid Knowledge, part of IndustryWeek's parent company Endeavor Business Media 
• David Paganie, content director for the upcoming Microgrid Knowledge Conference