Full Title: Decoding DERMS: Options for the Future of DER Management
Author(s): Lakin Garth, Zach Pollock, Jason Delaney, Seth Frader-Thompson, Paul Hines, and Sophia Hadeka
Publisher(s): Smart Electric Power Alliance
Publication Date: March 31, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Several converging trends are transforming the electric grid in the United States including:
– Increasing variable renewable energy generation,
– Rising electricity demand,
– Grid decentralization driven by the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), and
– Increasing need for electric grid resilience in response to extreme weather events.
Traditional, infrastructure-centric approaches are insufficient to deliver reliable, affordable power in this new reality. The generation, transmission, and distribution upgrades needed are simply too expensive and time-consuming to be effective on their own. Fortunately, demand flexibility has the potential to enable utilities to meet the needs of the future at much lower cost with greater speed and optionality.
To manage this complexity and harness the benefits of DER adoption, utilities and market operators are turning to distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS). DERMS is a collection of software systems that interact with utility operational (OT) and information technology (IT) systems to integrate, manage, and optimize DERs, ensuring reliable and efficient grid operations.
In this white paper, the authors explore how DERMS can facilitate a new paradigm for grid operations by providing real-time monitoring, control, and coordination of both front-of-the-meter (FTM) and behind-the-meter (BTM) assets. Utilities can build and scale VPPs with DERMS that provide reliable flexibility by leveraging DERs to shift and shape load.
Load flexibility, when paired with selective infrastructure upgrades, has the potential to enable utilities to effectively manage evolving pressure on the grid and continue to deliver reliable, affordable power across the United States.