Beyond The Battery: How Austin Energy is Maximizing the Value of Integrated Storage and DERMS

Renewable energy deployment goals are driving increasing penetration of distributed solar generation. If not deployed and controlled thoughtfully, this can threaten the stability of the distribution grid.  Issues include voltage volatility, reverse power flows, and power quality concerns. Utilities have two paths to avoid this situation. The first is to limit solar interconnection. The second is to develop cost-effective control strategies. Partners Austin Energy and Doosan GridTech are pursuing the latter by deploying a DER management system (DERMS) to integrate over 3 MW of utility-owned energy storage systems (ESS), solar PV and distributed residential and commercial storage.

One of Greentech Media’s 2018 Grid Edge Innovation Award winners, the Austin SHINES program aims to be a blueprint for how the electric utility of the future integrates renewable resources and energy storage on the grid in a holistic way. The explicit goal of the program is to lower the cost to serve load while integrating more solar generation.  Distributed storage, smart solar inverters and the DER control platform must be optimized for both ERCOT market opportunities and supporting local power quality for this to be successful. This panel will provide insights on what it takes to deliver this advanced DER platform and how utilities faced with similar challenges will benefit from the outcomes of this project.

In this session you will learn:

• Why Austin Energy is pursuing a progressive vision for an integrated, interconnected grid system.
• What is System Levelized Cost of Energy (SLCOE), and how this innovative metric highlights the trade-offs between DER deployment and control scenarios across a blend of utility assets.
• How to assess the value of energy storage and holistic DER controls working in concert with traditional utility assets to maintain a safe, reliable, and affordable system.