Microgrids for Fabs

UPS · battery storage · generators · islanding · blackstart

In September 2025 a power fault at Linde, the industrial gas supplier for TSMC's Fab 21 in Phoenix, halted the fab for several hours and scrapped thousands of wafers, though the fab's own generators kept it lit. A fab microgrid has to cover every timescale from an 8-millisecond voltage sag to a 2-to-6-hour blackstart, and each layer, UPS, battery storage and generators, covers only its own window.

Fab power resilience layers on a time scale from 1 millisecond to 10 hours: process tools fault after 50 to 200 milliseconds of disturbance; a double-conversion UPS responds with zero transfer time and carries tools for 10 to 30 minutes; battery storage responds in under a millisecond and lasts about 1 to 2 hours; the islanding switch must open inside the tools' ride-through window; generators start in 10 to 30 seconds and run for hours; a full blackstart takes 2 to 6 hours. WHICH LAYER COVERS WHICH TIMESCALE (LOG SCALE) 1 ms 10 ms 100 ms 1 s 10 s 1 min 10 min 1 h 10 h 8 MS SAG FAULTS A LITHOGRAPHY BAY Tool ride-through 50-200 MS BEFORE TOOLS FAULT UPS ZERO TRANSFER; 10-30 MIN OF BATTERY Battery storage SUB-MS RESPONSE; ABOUT 1-2 H Islanding switch MUST OPEN INSIDE THE RIDE-THROUGH WINDOW Generators START IN 10-30 S; RUN FOR HOURS Blackstart 2-6 H OF NO PRODUCTION AFTER FULL LOSS No layer substitutes for another: battery storage without a UPS still loses yield at the millisecond scale, and a UPS without generators runs out.
Tool ride-through
50-200 ms
UPS runtime
10-30 min
Generator start
10-30 s
Blackstart
2-6 h
Load shed in
<100 ms
Hub
Fab Operations

Outages

Outages That Shaped Fab Power Design

A voltage sag a commercial building absorbs can fault an entire lithography bay, and a 30-second outage can take hours of restart and tool requalification before production resumes.

Outages at fabs and fab regions
WhenWhereCauseImpact
September 2025TSMC Fab 21, Phoenix, ArizonaPower fault at Linde, the site's industrial gas supplierFab halted for several hours; thousands of wafers scrapped, by press reports; the fab's own generators kept it lit
August 2022Sichuan province, ChinaHeatwave and drought cut hydropower; the province halted industrial users for six daysElectronics plants in Chengdu, where Intel and Texas Instruments run assembly and test sites, were among those ordered off
March 2022TaiwanFault at the Hsinta power plant blacked out millions of householdsTSMC reported limited impact; fab backup systems carried the load
February 2021Samsung Austin, TexasWinter Storm Uri; ERCOT ordered large loads off the gridFab down for about six weeks; Samsung put the loss at about 400 billion won

A microgrid is mainly power quality and resilience infrastructure: on-site generation, storage and power electronics that condition power during normal operation and run the fab without the utility when needed. It also enables on-site renewables, a secondary benefit covered on Decarbonization.

Components

Microgrid Components in a Fab

Microgrid components
ComponentRoleFab requirementsAdoption
Battery storage (BESS)Sub-millisecond voltage support; ride-through; bridges UPS to generator start; peak shavingResponse under 1 ms; power conversion must meet fab harmonic specsStandard in new fabs; retrofits in grid-stressed regions
On-site solarDaytime generation; physical renewable supplyNeeds battery pairing for firm capacity; inverter switching isolated from cleanroom foundationsGrowing at US and EU fabs; limited by roof and land area
Combined heat and power, fuel cellsFirm on-site generation; waste heat for process or absorption coolingExhaust and vibration isolated from cleanrooms; hydrogen storage or pipeline for fuel cellsPilots in Korea, Japan and at Intel Oregon
Diesel or gas turbine generatorsLong outages; blackstart; a backup, not a power quality assetStart in 10 to 30 s; sized for critical loads; emissions permits limit runtimeUniversal; diesel giving way to gas turbines
Solid-state transformersDC distribution; harmonic filtering; two-way flow for batteriesReliability record still being builtPre-commercial in fabs; ABB, Siemens and GE developing
Energy management system (EMS)Dispatches every asset; executes load shedding; grid servicesLinks to the fab's manufacturing execution system; sheds load in under 100 msSchneider EcoStruxure, Siemens Spectrum Power, custom builds

Battery storage

Battery Storage Is Becoming the Primary Conditioning Asset

In the classic fab design the UPS handles milliseconds and generators handle long outages. Battery storage fills the gap between them and adds continuous conditioning: paired with a grid-forming inverter it regulates voltage and frequency at the point of common coupling, suppresses harmonics and supplies synthetic inertia when large tools such as EUV scanners cycle on and off.

Sizing follows three needs: ride-through of the critical load until generators start, peak shaving on a 200 to 600 MW load, and power conversion rated for large load steps. Fab-scale systems run about 20 to 100 MWh with 20 to 50 MW of conversion. GlobalFoundries is adding a 16 MW, 52 MWh behind-the-meter system at its Essex Junction, Vermont fab, built by Lightshift Energy, sized to carry about 40% of the plant's load at peak demand.

Topologies

Microgrid Topologies for Fabs

Topologies
TopologyArchitectureFab capabilityMaturity
Grid-followingInverters follow utility voltage and frequencyPeak shaving, demand response, solar; cannot island aloneMature; at most fabs with on-site generation today
Grid-formingBattery inverter sets voltage and frequency itselfSeamless islanding; active voltage and frequency regulation; synthetic inertiaAvailable from SMA, ABB, Schneider, Dynapower; preferred for new fabs
Hybrid AC/DCAC bus for HVAC and facility; DC bus for tools, batteries and solarRemoves conversion stages; fastest battery responsePre-commercial; development at Intel and TSMC
Campus microgridOne controller across fabs and utility buildingsShared assets sized for campus load; reroutes around faulted feedersOperating at TSMC Tainan, Samsung Hwaseong, Intel Hillsboro

Islanding and blackstart

Islanding, Blackstart and Grid-Forming Inverters

  • Islanding: the microgrid detects a grid fault, opens the interconnection switch and keeps critical tools running on local assets, all inside the tools' 50 to 200 ms ride-through window. It needs a grid-forming inverter as the voltage reference, a fast static transfer switch and an energy management system that sheds load in real time. Protection must tell a utility fault (island) from an internal fault (do not island).
  • Blackstart: restarting from a fully de-energized state with on-site assets only. Batteries power the controls and excitation that bring generators online; generators then energize the bus in sections, starting with ultrapure water, minimum HVAC and safe-state systems. A full fab blackstart takes 2 to 6 hours with no production.
  • Grid-forming inverters: set voltage and frequency independently of the grid, so the move to islanded operation has no transfer gap, and their synthetic inertia smooths frequency when large tools start or stop.

On-site generation

Distributed Energy Resources in a Fab Microgrid

On-site energy resources
ResourceRolePower quality contributionIslanding roleDecarbonization
Battery storageRide-through, conditioning, peak shavingHighVoltage source when islanded with a grid-forming inverterIndirect: buffers renewables
On-site solarDaytime generationLow without batteriesDaytime support; must match critical loadHigh: physical renewable power at the fab
Hydrogen fuel cellFirm dispatchable generationModerate; depends on inverterExtends islanding beyond batteriesHigh with green hydrogen
Gas turbine or CHPBackup generation; waste heatLow as a primary sourceMain source for long islanding; blackstartLow: a Scope 1 combustion source

Load shedding

Load Shedding When the Fab Islands

When the fab islands, the energy management system runs a pre-engineered shedding hierarchy in under 100 ms to balance load against on-site generation and storage.

Load-shedding tiers in islanded operation, as share of fab load: tier 1, never shed, about 30 to 40%; tier 2, shed only after a battery warning, 25 to 35%; tier 3, shed on islanding, 15 to 25%; tier 4, shed immediately, 10 to 20%. SHARE OF FAB LOAD BY SHEDDING TIER (MIDPOINTS) 35% Tier 1: never shed UPW, minimum HVAC, gas monitoring, safe-state systems 30% Tier 2: shed last tools with wafers in recipe, scanners, loaded chambers 20% Tier 3: shed on islanding idle tools, metrology, HVAC above minimum 15% Tier 4: shed at once offices, cafeteria, parking, EV charging

Outlook

Microgrids Are Becoming a Design Requirement

  • Grid reliability: Winter Storm Uri in Texas, summer peaks in Arizona and the 2022 Sichuan rationing made grid risk concrete for fab operators.
  • Incentives: US investment tax credits cover on-site storage and generation, and CHIPS Act grants count energy infrastructure as eligible spending.
  • Competition for the grid: fabs and AI data centers queue for the same interconnection capacity, which raises the value of on-site generation and storage.
  • Security: fabs serving defense programs face deliberate grid disruption in their threat model, and the ability to run islanded for long periods is the engineering answer.

The same battery, solar, fuel cell and grid-forming technology runs data center and gigafactory microgrids; see ElectronsX: Microgrids and DatacentersX: Microgrids.

Record

Page Record

Covers
Fab outages, microgrid components, battery storage, topologies, islanding and blackstart, on-site generation, load shedding and outlook
Sources
DatacenterDynamics and Culpium (TSMC Fab 21 outage, November 2025); Korea Times (Samsung Austin loss, April 2021); TechNews and AP (Sichuan rationing, August 2022); Lightshift Energy and microgrid trade press (GlobalFoundries Essex Junction, May 2025); inverter and EMS vendor data
Last verified
October 2026