Interactive Tool from ScottMadden Allows Users to Build Texas as a Carbon Neutral State
July 28, 2021
Recent demand response requests from Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) have focused attention on reliability as summer heat tests the grid again. This tool allows users to see the impact of a different generation mix for the Texas grid using historical demand and different capacities of generation resources. more

California PUC Issues Draft Distributed Energy Resources Action Plan
July 26, 2021
The California Public Utilities Commission on July 23 issued a Draft Distributed Energy Resources Action Plan 2.0, intended to coordinate development and implementation of policy, and will host a public workshop to discuss the draft and solicit comments. The Action Plan will serve as a roadmap for CPUC decision-makers, staff, and stakeholders to facilitate forward-thinking policy and maximize ratepayer and societal value in an anticipated high-DER future. more

CPower Makes Vertical Commercial Agriculture More Cost Effective through Distributed Energy Resource Optimization
July 22, 2021
Scale Microgrid Solutions and CPower will provide Fifth Season with utility bill savings, energy resilience and reliable access to clean energy, while generating revenue by offering energy and ancillary services to the PJM market. This project represents CPower's expansion in the rapidly growing indoor agriculture sector, an industry that will help to address emerging food security concerns as global food demand is expected to increase 60 percent by 2050. more

Voltus Exceeds Its Demand Response Commitment to MISO Grid During June Extreme Weather Event
July 20, 2021
Voltus, Inc., a leading distributed energy resource technology company and DER aggregator, this week reported that it delivered more than its commitment during the June 10th Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) Load Modifying Resource (LMR) demand response event. LMR was called by MISO in response to unplanned generator outages and higher than expected electricity demand linked to a heatwave throughout the Midwestern US. more

APS RFP Seeks Innovative Demand-Side Resources to Accelerate Carbon-Free Commitment
July 1, 2021
APS is seeking proposals for products that aggregate distributed technologies to provide systemwide capacity resources from 5-40 megawatts and locational resources of 1-5 megawatts. This RFP is open to all eligible distributed demand-side technologies, including both dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources, which can include products such as energy storage, smart thermostats, managed electric vehicle charging stations and connected water heater and pool pump controls. more

Itron Supports Energy Savings in Colorado with Grid-interactive Water Heater Program
June 24, 2021
The program, which is managed by Itron, enables new distributed energy resource technologies to connect electric resistive and heat-pump water heaters to operate during periods when excess renewable energy is available or to pre-heat water tanks, supporting the utility's energy savings goals. Electric hot water heaters are the second highest electricity-consuming appliance for most residential customers, after air conditioners. The ability to pre-heat water prior to peak electric-use periods can reduce a significant amount of enrolled residential customers' electric costs during peak times - up to 15 to 20% - by shifting it to non-peak times. more

EPRI Launches New Tool to Increase Grid Flexibility for the Clean Energy Transition
May 26, 2021
The tool provides a free, publicly accessible, open-source platform for calculating, understanding, and optimizing the value of DER based on their technical merits and constraints. DER-VET was developed in collaboration with the California Energy Commission (CEC). An extension of EPRI's StorageVET tool, DER-VET supports site-specific assessments for energy storage and additional DER technologies.    more

Results from the Energy Transition Project DESIGNETZ Presented
April 12, 2021
After more than four years of research and development work, the DESIGNETZ project (part of the SINTEG funding program), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and led by E.ON, presented its results today. 46 project partners have been working together since the beginning of 2017 in the model regions of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland to develop scalable solutions that can be used to realize a sustainable, secure and at the same time cost-efficient energy system.    more

Solving the Challenges of Integrating DERs into Grid Operations
March 31, 2021
When scaling to incorporate tens of thousands or millions of grid edge devices, utilities do not have the culture, technical expertise or processes necessary -- yet it is a critical learning process and absolutely required for success, according to according to James Mater, Co-Founder of QualityLogic. SGO talks with James about these and other critical issues surrounding standards in the evolving distributed energy industry.    more

Eaton Introduces "Home as a Grid" Approach to Residential Energy Transition
March 1, 2021
"For years the home has been thought of only in terms of its ability to receive power from the energy grid," said John Vernacchia, energy transition segment director - North America, Eaton. "The integration of renewable energy sources behind the meter and emergence of capabilities to support bi-directional flow of energy transforms our understanding of what is possible for the home as an energy source.    more

Packetized Energy Awarded $2 Million Contract to Make Energy Demand Flexible and Help Solve California Grid Challenges
February 4, 2021
The award will fund deployment and connection of 7,000 new and existing smart energy devices to Packetized Energy's Nimble platform, enabling a combined 4 megawatts of grid flexibility. The project will create one of the largest distributed energy resource aggregation networks from residential devices in California.    more

EPRI and Industry Will Use New Grant to Help New York State Reach Zero-Emission Electricity by 2040
December 18, 2020
The research seeks to address potential challenges to integrating more DER into the electric grid, such power quality challenges, overload to distribution and transmission grid components, and over-voltages. The project will also demonstrate how DERMS can be integrated with existing utility back office systems.    more

Smarter Grid Solutions Runs Successful Reactive Power Dispatch Project With Rochester Gas and Electric in New York
December 15, 2020
"DERs can do more than we give them credit for, and this study shows how they can be better suited to our increasingly dynamic grid than what is in our conventional toolkit," Mark Jaggassar, Director of Grid Analytics at SGS said. "Exploring how we can enable these capabilities at scale will accelerate our tradition to a clean grid."    more

Sunverge Selected for by Nova Scotia Power for the Smart Grid Atlantic Project
December 1, 2020
The Smart Grid Atlantic Pilot project will provide residential behind-the-meter virtual power plant technologies that include Sunverge real-time DER control, orchestration and aggregation platform combined with LG Electronics residential energy storage systems.    more

Next Kraftwerke and Toshiba Establish Joint Venture for Virtual Power Plant Services
November 4, 2020
The new company aims at enabling others to provide balancing services for the owners of renewable energy assets and aggregators by using VPP technology. This approach helps third parties to mitigate imbalance risks, optimizes trading, and enhances customer profits in the electricity spot market and control reserve market.    more

NREL Unveils Open-Source Distributed Generation Market Demand Model
October 22, 2020
dGen simulates customer decisions about adopting and using solar, wind, and storage technologies for residential and commercial entities in the United States through 2050. This simulation helps utility companies and other stakeholders plan for increasing adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) to understand how much electricity will be needed from the rest of the power system.    more

DCPSC Issues RFP to Conduct Study on Value of Distributed Energy Resources in the District
October 8, 2020
The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia has approved a request for proposals to hire a consultant to produce a methodology and metrics for determining the value of distributed energy resources in the District. The first phase of the analysis will result in a framework and dynamic pricing formula, which would then be implemented during the second phase. The framework will be used to calculate rates of DER compensation.    more

First Solar Power Plant in Chile is World's First to Deliver Grid Services
August 24, 2020
First Solar, Inc. recently announced that its 141-megawatt (MW)AC Luz del Norte photovoltaic power plant is the world's first known utility-scale solar facility licensed to deliver ancillary grid services commercially. Chile's independent system operator (ISO), Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional, recently added Luz del Norte to its portfolio of large-scale power generators that are approved to deliver a range of grid services, including automatic generation control (AGC).    more

U.S. Secretary of Energy Announces ARIES - a Visionary Energy Research Platform
August 14, 2020
ARIES represents a substantial scale-up in experimentation capability from existing research platforms, allowing for research at the 20MW level. It will make it possible to understand the impact and get the most value from the millions of new devices such as electric vehicles, renewable generation, hydrogen, energy storage, and grid-interactive efficient buildings that are being connected to the grid daily.    more

Schneider Electric Solar Unveils Insight, a Smart Digital Platform for Solar & Storage Energy Management
July 30, 2020
Schneider Electric Solar has announced the launch of Insight, its new energy management platform for residential and commercial users. Homeowners and property managers can leverage Insight as a single platform for energy management. It is designed to provide more accurate and complete data on solar system performance, including the money-saving and environmental impacts that have been made. In addition to system performance data, Insight will offer scalable load management features in the future.    more

U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory Announces Arrival of OptGrid
July 29, 2020
Analogous to a software that operates a household's smart devices, OptGrid is the operating system for the new grid, which is being defined by distributed energy technologies in large numbers and great variety. OptGrid manages the complex connections between those technologies, facilitating efficient energy exchange and flexible power systems. With OptGrid, communities, utilities, microgrids, and residents are closer than ever to realizing a power system that operates at the full potential provided by modern energy resources.    more

Opus One Solutions Deploys First Transactive Energy Management Software at Southern California Edison for a DOE Demonstration Project
July 23, 2020
This is the first transactive energy software deployment of its kind at Southern California Edison and in the state of California. Opus One's GridOS TEMS application will be used for SCE's Electric Access System Enhancement (EASE) project, which is supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) Enabling Extreme Real-time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (ENERGISE) program.    more

Central Hudson Expands Distributed Energy Resource Capabilities with Sensus
July 8, 2020
Homes with rooftop solar panels and expansive, commercial solar farms are part of the Central Hudson Gas & Electric's 2,600 square-mile service area between the northern New York City suburbs and the state capital of Albany. Technology has helped the utility seize the opportunity for new grid controls while ensuring quality and reliability as demand evolves.    more

PGE Program Will Transform Hundreds of Homes Into a Virtual Power Plant
July 2, 2020
Portland General Electric is set to launch a pilot program that will incentivize installation and connection of 525 residential energy storage batteries that PGE will dispatch, contributing up to four megawatts of energy to PGE’s grid. The distributed assets will create a virtual power plant made up of small units that can be operated individually or combined to serve the grid, adding flexibility that supports PGE’s transition to a clean energy future.    more

Orange & Rockland and Sunrun To Bring Innovative Rooftop Solar and Battery Network To New York
June 18, 2020
Beginning this year, Sunrun will bundle rooftop solar energy stored in more than 300 Brightbox battery systems and deliver it to the electricity grid when called upon by O&R. O&R and Sunrun's implementation plans were accepted by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) last Friday. By bundling and coordinating the energy stored in Sunrun's Brightbox home battery systems, Sunrun will form a virtual power plant to partially offset demand on O&R's electricity grid in key areas, while providing clean, reliable, locally-generated solar power to residents in Orange and Rockland counties.    more

Gridium Deploys Nation-Wide Data Integrations to Help Buildings and the Grid Connect to DER's $29 Billion of Savings
May 27, 2020
Gridium built its new and growing suite of 71 data integrations to help buildings solve the complexity they now face when connecting to the rapidly evolving energy Grid. Validating battery storage savings, predicting non-coincident peak demand spikes, or entering into efficiency resource transactions require accurate analysis of multiple data sources. The good news is that this interconnectivity can drive down energy costs and emissions while boosting site-specific resilience.    more

Smarter Grid Solutions Finalizes Five Solutions for Flexible Solar Interconnection to Utility Grids
May 20, 2020
Using the company's ANM Element software product, utility companies can monitor the amount of power generated by solar photovoltaics (PVs), wind turbines and other renewable energy devices connected to their substations in real-time and react to spikes in output and network loading.    more

Itron Receives OpenADR Certification for its Distributed Energy Resource Management System
May 14, 2020
With Itron’s OpenADR-certified DERMS solution, utilities will be able to manage solar power, energy storage and electric vehicles in addition to managing grid-connected flexible loads such as water heaters, pool pumps, thermostats and HVACs – all via open standards. This will help reduce the risk of stranded assets and costs for the utility while driving adoption of grid-connected smart energy products and more cost-effective programs.    more

QualityLogic + SunSpec Alliance Partner to Expand the Testing and Certification of Smart Energy Resources
April 29, 2020
The SunSpec Alliance and QualityLogic recently announced the approval of QualityLogic, Inc., as the first SunSpec Authorized Test Software Provider. QualityLogic has been working closely with SunSpec on its CA Rule 21 CSIP certification program since 2018.    more

Enbala Selected by Cape Light Compact for Innovative Virtual Power Plant Project
April 23, 2020
As part of this project, Cape Light Compact customers will be able to sign up with Curtailment Service Providers (CSPs) who have been selected as trusted partners to offer demand response programs. Enbala's Concerto platform will be used to connect and control the customers' distributed energy assets that are enrolled to participate in DR events.    more

NRTC Selects AutoGrid Flex to Deliver Bring Your Own Things (BYOT) and DER Management System (DERMS) Across Rural United States
April 16, 2020
Under the agreement, NRTC will utilize AutoGrid Flex to harness the value of DERs such as connected thermostats, water heaters, battery energy storage, solar PV and electric vehicles. NRTC represents more than 800 rural electric utilities in 48 states, collectively serving approximately 20 million homes and 50 million residents.    more

Utilidata Secures Rights to Technology for Bringing Real-Time Operational Controls to the Grid Edge
March 18, 2020
Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory with funding from DOE's Advanced Research Projects - Energy program, the Real-time Optimal Power Flow (RT-OPF) technology enables highly localized load control, enabling seamless integration of distributed energy resources. Utilidata plans to embed this technology, along with its existing voltage optimization technology and virtual power flow model, into smart meters, unlocking new potential for grid edge control.    more

New Jersey Master Plan Opens New Doors for Distributed Energy
February 28, 2020
Finalized by Governor Phil Murphy on January 27, the "New Jersey Energy Master Plan Policy: Vision to 2050" lays out a path for the state to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050, and 80% emissions reductions from 2006 levels by 2050. To get there, it counts on both public and privately held energy assets as well as residential and large energy consumers adopting energy reducing or emission-reducing strategies.    view report

New Customer Portal From Smarter Grid Solutions Supports UK and US Utility Customers
January 16, 2020
SGS invested in its new secure Customer Portal and its Managed Services and Support team to enhance support for its operational utility DERMS customers. Scottish & Southern Energy Networks and UK Power Networks both use the portal and associated services to manage events on their networks and meet their connected Distributed Energy Resources (DER) customer needs in Great Britain.    more

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, given differing state regulatory regimes and varying levels of digital grid maturity across the US, distribution utilities can take steps today to reinvent themselves and secure their future. The report outlines a three-phased approach to investment, which reflects local circumstances, maturity and dynamics.    more

Around 800,000 distributed systems producing green energy are already connected to E.ON's grids in Germany - and that figure is rising. In order to considerably speed up the connection process for these systems, experts from E.ON grid operator E.DIS teamed up with the start-up envelio, a spin-off of RWTH Aachen University, to develop a digital grid connection monitor.    more

Traditional power control systems were not designed to operate in the intermittent world of renewables, especially large amounts of DER located out at the edge of the grid. This issue presents a major barrier to the ambitions of states who plan to operate 100% clean energy by 2030. If DERs are to ever become a truly significant part of the generation mix in America, a new type of control system is needed. These new systems are referred to as Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems -- or "DERMS".    read article

Stephen Stead, Director of Digital Services and Strategy for SSE's Distributed Energy arm, said: "Real time control of local energy generation and consumption is playing an increasingly vital role in decarbonizing our economy. As energy demand increases through the electrification of services, such as transport and heat, so too will the need for responsive energy asset control to manage the growth in variable renewables.    more

Using real-time information from a variety of DERs, the VPP will optimize the power output of these resources located across the island. Energy fluctuations due to solar intermittency at different locations could be balanced automatically via the VPP. The VPP is also equipped with demand forecasting and optimization algorithms that take into account Singapore's power grid and market conditions.    more

Indra and Monash University are collaborating to develop, implement and test a distribution management platform across the Clayton campus of the Monash University in Victoria, to control a grid-connected Microgrid comprising a variety of distributed energy resources (DER).    more

The solution targets the entire ecosystem around distribution planning from utilities to consulting firms, system integrators and product partners, ensuring cost effective and reliable service to customers through advanced software applications.    more

Schneider Electric has announced the expansion of its microgrid project at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar to boost resilience. A California Energy Commission Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) grant will enable the $3.9 million project that will add energy storage to the microgrid and integrate demand side management.    more

A new Leaderboard Report from Navigant Research examines the strategy and execution of 16 distributed energy resources management systems (DERMSs) for distributed energy resources (DER) and grid management providers, with Siemens, Enbala, and AutoGrid ranked as the leading market players.    more

The partners will research and test in real-time how the grid of the future can optimize integration of renewables, ensure stability of the grid and manage decentralized distribution in order to better manage the provinces' electricity, potentially reduce future electricity costs for consumers and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pilot, officially called the Smart Grid Atlantic project, is being funded in part by the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund.    more

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market for emerging residential energy and non-energy solutions, examining key market drivers, barriers, trends, and business models. The report finds that the annual global market for the deployment of residential energy and non-energy solutions is anticipated to grow from $6,389.2 million in 2018 to $35,580.2 million by 2027.    more

OpenADR 2.0b Specification Receives Full Approval as IEC Standard
January 11, 2019
The OpenADR Alliance recently announced that the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the world's leading International Standards organization for all electrical, electronic and related technologies, has approved the OpenADR 2.0b Profile Specification as a full IEC standard, to be known as IEC 62746-10-1 ED1. (https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/26267)    more

New UK Proposals to Unlock Smarter Energy System
January 11, 2019
UK households and businesses installing new solar panels will be guaranteed payment for power provided back to the grid under government proposals set out recently (1/8) to unlock the smart energy systems of the future - an important upgrade to the current Feed-in Tariffs scheme.    more

RMI Publishes Non-Wires Solutions Implementation Playbook for Regulators, Utilities, and Developers
January 8, 2019
Electric utilities increasingly can reduce their system infrastructure investments and save customers money by employing non-wires solutions (NWS) -portfolios of distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar photovoltaics, energy storage, energy efficiency and demand response-to cost-effectively meet growing grid needs, according to a report released recently by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).    more

mPrest to Partner with Southern Company for Grid Modernization and Distributed Smart Energy Apps
January 8, 2019
mPrest, a monitoring, control and big data analytics software leader for the internet of energy market, and Southern Company have announced a collaboration to develop and implement a solution to further enhance the resiliency, efficiency and flexibility of Southern Company's distribution system.    more