Three leading G&T companies — Great River Energy, Dairyland Power, and North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives — will present their experience with DERMS deployments specific to a G&T with cooperative utility members. Each of the participating G&Ts manage demand-side capabilities for more than 20 distribution co-ops in their service territory. With the increased penetrations of smart devices and DERs, demand-side management delivers significant economic value to the co-op and its customers.  

The G&T DERMS provides for multi-organizational operations with co-op local objectives and G&T wholesale objectives. Use cases typically include various direct load control and price-responsive programs covering devices and DERs at different co-ops.

The panelists will present the diversity of programs, integrations, data and process flows in their regions. Use cases include aggregation of co-op capabilities, participant awareness via customer portal, and interactions with ISO/RTO markets and market price-triggered Events. DER communication & controls, substation-based solar plus storage and microgrid facilities for local resilience, as well as data and system integration considerations, will be discussed. 

Key Takeaways:

• Co-op and G&T DERMS deployment strategies
• Use cases, justifications, and benefits
• Operational experience for multi-organizational deployments