Coordinating grid-centric and grid-edge DERMS: A journey towards platform convergence

2-minute read

Quick summary: The growing adoption of DERs could outpace utilities’ ability to manage and mitigate their impact on the grid, writes Ross Mesnick in POWERGRID International.

There has been considerable growth over the last decade in the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs). As their relevance continues to expand, growth could outpace utilities’ ability to manage and mitigate the impact of DERs on the grid. Therefore, major utilities have begun implementing distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS). DERMS equip utilities to manage the adoption of DERs by providing the tools necessary to handle the resulting complexities.

A comprehensive and coordinated DERMS solution

To effectively manage the rise of DERs, utilities need a comprehensive solution that accommodates behind-the-meter (BTM) and front-of-the-meter (FTM) DERs.

This solution must enable the coordination of FTM assets and management of grid constraints (grid-centric DERMS) with BTM assets (grid-edge DERMS). To understand why seamless communication is necessary, it is important to explore what each domain covers.

To read the complete story, visit POWERGRID International.

Ross Mesnick is a Senior Consultant in Logic20/20’s Grid Operations practice. With professional experience advising clients in the power & utilities sector, Ross has worked with major utilities across the United States to implement new technologies to transform the power grid. He has experience supporting utilities through the end-to-end system implementation process, including requirements gathering & development, vendor selection, business process design, testing, go-live & post-implementation support for ADMS, OMS, SCADA, and DERMS.

Managing Director of Grid Operations Alex Lago has over 30 years of experience in power system operations, wholesale power market operations, SCADA/EMS/GMS/DMS/OMS systems, and system/application design and implementation. He is passionate about advising companies on large-scale transformational projects and implementation of complex real-time operation systems.

Michael Emmanuel is a Manager of Grid Operations with over 10 years of experience in utilities. He previously worked as a research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where he helped utilities implement DERs and hosted capacity studies on non-wire alternatives and economic dispatch models. Michael’s areas of expertise include DER hosting capacity analysis, DERMS, ADMS, and production cost modeling.