Distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) have been tricky for some major utilities to deploy. Here’s how ComEd cracked the code.
As the energy transition accelerates, utilities are relying on advanced power grid software to navigate the complexities of integrating renewable energy, ensuring grid reliability, and meeting customer expectations. Distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) have emerged as a pivotal tool, enabling utilities to balance diverse energy inputs in real-time while avoiding costly infrastructure upgrades.
Around 2020, ComEd, the investor-owned utility serving more than 4 million customers in and around Chicago, faced a growing challenge that had become increasingly common for electric utilities: A new wind project wanted to connect to ComEd’s western grid, a region already supporting several transmission-level wind farms. But this project aimed to tie into a 34 kV distribution line, which would have resulted in transformer overload with the added resource and threatened grid stability.
Under traditional firm interconnection rules, the project would have faced a binary outcome: either connect fully or be denied access. DERMS enabled ComEd to implement flexible interconnections, allowing the project to operate conditionally based on real-time grid conditions and avoiding costly infrastructure upgrades.
At the time, utility DERMS implementation was in its infancy. There was no clear playbook for deployment and the technology had already been cloaked in jargon and ambiguity by technology marketers. Even today, many utilities are struggling to demystify DERMS. Integration challenges have plagued others. But since 2021, ComEd has operated a utility-scale DERMS, one of the few of its kind in the U.S., supporting 8 GW of distributed energy resources (DER) capacity with minimal curtailments. How did they do it?