Smarter Grid Solutions to Implement DERMS for National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) ESIF Project

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) chose DERMS provider, Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) to implement a Strata Grid Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) at NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).

The ESIF is one of the nation’s premier energy systems integration laboratory facilities focused on development and deployment of clean energy technologies and resilient distribution systems. NREL sought a DERMS capable of replicating utility control and monitoring of distributed devices from small residential systems to the grid substation level.

Example use cases of SGS’ Strata Grid DERMS system include the autonomous operation and coordination of modern grid devices, leveraging DERs for improved grid planning and operation, and demand-side management and customer engagement through bidirectional communication with utilities and energy market operations.

“SGS is excited to partner with NREL on their research in the DERMS realm. With NREL’s research leadership and SGS’ industry-leading DERMS solutions, we expect to see very interesting and exciting learnings from this partnership,” Jon Grooters, Director of Utility Solutions at SGS, said.

“DERMS-related research is core to the integrated, multi-disciplinary work happening at ESIF. We have confidence we are developing a powerful toolbox with SGS to address both existing and future use cases,” said Sarah Williams, NREL ESIF research project manager.

DERMS can enhance control and visibility for utilities and electric cooperatives, allowing their operators to manage incoming renewable energy resources and grid-edge devices for improved reliability, resilience, and efficiency of the electrical system.