Something else that was mentioned also caught my attention was...

Something else that was mentioned also caught my attention was hydro storage. He said that excess energy production over what was required could go into desalination. Of course this could only be done if there was the facility to store it.

I did not take this to mean that the stored freshwater would be converted back to power at a future time. Instead it was to ensure none of the energy produced by the microgrid would be wasted, nor would energy production need to be reduced in off peak times such as the middle of the night.

I assume locations that did not have water storage would instead use battery storage.

Every location will have it's own set of requirements.