Driven by organizational and legislative initiatives, utility grid planning and customer-facing programs are being developed that promote the equitable adoption of DERs. These programs intend to offer opportunities for all utility customers to adopt grid-connected DERs. However, misconceptions or lack of awareness of technical grid constraints can result in conflicts between policy design and operational/safety requirements, particularly when considering distribution feeders with high DER penetrations where communities targeted for DER adoption also reside. For example, incentives intended to drive DER deployment in underserved locations may spur a C&I customer to deploy a project that uses the entirety of a feeder's remaining hosting capacity, leaving residents to pay for system upgrades if they wish to deploy DER.  
 
This session will discuss the challenges of achieving DER adoption equity goals while maintaining the effective operation of high-penetration distribution feeders. Topics covered include: 

• The concept of equity with respect to DER adoption 
• Illustrative scenarios of DER connection considerations on  feeders with differing hosting capacities and serving various customer segments 
• Various solutions to achieving equitable adoption on high-penetration feeders, along with their pros and cons

The session will provide utilities with considerations and potential solutions for implementing strategies to achieve equitable DER adoption while accounting for potential engineering constraints on high-penetration feeders. The presentation will pair commentary provided by EPRI with experience-based perspectives offered by Hydro One, one of several utilities involved in EPRI-led working sessions to develop equitable DER allocation solutions.