Grid Planning and Operation Technologies, Effectiveness and Costs for High DER Integration and Adoption

New customer-sited technologies and distributed energy resources are changing the way the grid is planned and operated, at the distribution system level. The distribution grid is no longer a passive system, but an active and dynamic two-way power-flow system. As such, awareness of what is happening at the grid-edge is now crucial to inform planning and real-time operation of the grid. The panelists and session chair have several ongoing collaborations that focus on understanding the platforms and systems that can support the decarbonization of the grid with high DER adoption. The panelists will present findings of the following projects:
•DOE Solar Office funded project in which Kevala Inc grid platform is supporting NREL’s modeling of the grid edge to improve the interconnection of DER, and EPRI is a member of the project’s Advisory Board Group.
•DOE Solar Office funded project in which NREL and Sandia, along with other project partners are providing lessons learned on the effectiveness and techno-economic evaluation of grid integration strategies such as DERMS, Volt-Var Optimization (VVO), and smart inverters in increasing hosting capacity; EPRI is also a member of the project’s Advisory Board Group.
•NYSERDA funded project in which Utilidata and NREL, along with National Grid and Standard Solar, are collaborating to evaluate how real-time control platforms, including VVO, interact with smart inverters and smart meters to decrease energy consumption, increase DER hosting capacity, and impact solar developer business models. The panelists proposed have an ample vision of the technologies, processes and requirements that the different stakeholders involved in achieving a full grid decarbonization process require. They are also actively involved in achieving such goals with regulators, utilities and DER developers in different states across the US. As such, we plan to discuss not only the technical requirements of platforms and systems required for high DER adoption, but also the importance of evaluating costs and benefits to achieve a decarbonized grid. The panelists will share a roadmap of where we are now in terms of implementation and deployment, and the vision on the future technological developments in the next 5 to 10 years.