The Post-Pilot Era: DERs Becoming Business as Usual for Utilities

This blog was originally published on LinkedIn.

The era of pilot projects is over. With distributed energy resources (DERs) continuing to grow at a rapid pace, now is the time for utilities to own their approach to the DER revolution.

Maturity matters. Today, the majority of utilities see DERs as a threat and often feel forced to dimension even more capacity to their grids. Too few, though, are at the next state of maturity, where they fully embrace DERs as an opportunity. 

Those mature utilities are no longer willing to simply test a technology to see how it works and what can be done with it. They are now looking for actual deployment and implementation in their real operations, which they realize requires homework in every one of their IT/OT systems, from geospatial to planning, operations, asset management and customer care. They might start with pockets of the grid that have the highest challenges, but even then, their investments are prioritized. 

A great example is a project we're currently rolling out for a large US utility. While the geographic and grid span are limited to some priority areas, we are implementing in a way that is fully repeatable. It’s not just about demonstrating what a smart solution can do, it’s about implementing things the right way so that all the processes are ready to deploy out to other parts of the grid. 

Long-term success rests on utility readiness for the next wave of DER evolution. We’ve seen the impact of wind farms and photovoltaics (PVs). Now, storage is coming into play. Storage, in theory, is the big enabler. The sun is bright during the day and people consume in the evening; if you had storage, it would help solve the entire equation.

There might be limits to current modes of storage—and issues such as recycling remain non trivial. But electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are sure to drive storage technology’s evolution. The technology is seemingly ramping up from 0 - 60 in seconds, as they say in the auto industry. 

And breakthroughs result even more from the coupling of these innovations. Having PV panels on a rooftop only brings so much value. With storage in the mix, the prosumer can do more time-of-use shifting, backing up power, and even trading with neighbors. 

Utilities must take DER management seriously. When they do, they discover that having just an isolated DERM system is not enough. The utility has to model, interconnect, manage, and orchestrate to reflect these objects in any part of their business. Just as they’d have a representation of a breaker or transformer in most of their systems, they need the same for every DER.  

But, this means a lot of homework. There are many more parameters to model in a DER rather than for a simple breaker to transformer: Who does the DER belong to? Who is the aggregator? How can the grid interact with that particular device? What technology/protocol can it be interfaced with for status, for measurements or to send out controls? What are the limitations and obligations outlined in the aggregation contract? Etc.

DERs play an important role in planning at all levels. For example, connecting a large prosumer with a battery can set the utility up to handle a few hours of heavy load (on a smaller scale) and also provide a way to postpone a planned retrofit to a substation.

Without the right tools in place, though, the utility can’t trust and rely on the DERs or ensure damage to the grid is avoided. That’s where GE comes in. We know what it takes to manage objects throughout the chain, and we’re best positioned to do things right in every corner of the utility’s business (even if it’s not our hardware). 

Leveraging the right components, the utility can effectively model all the key aspects needed to integrate DER and be predictive and proactive rather than reactive. Our expertise extends to:

• DER modeling
• DER planning
• DER interconnection
• DER real-time optimization and Adaptive Network Management
• Forecasting
• DER Look-ahead Analysis and optimization
• And expanding the transactional logics of traditional Market Management Systems down to the distribution and customer levels.

Success rests on breaking down silos. For instance, taking GIS and adding expertise on DER modeling can help the utility gauge whether or not to accept load generation and storage from DERs candidates for connection –and getting a grip right from the start on all the parameters that will be required in the ADMS or EMS to efficiently manage this DER once accepted for connection. Or, combining DER forecasting with WAMS enables the utility to anticipate not only frequency and voltage but also stability -which is essential in presence of high renewable or DER penetration.