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Topics covered by the DER Working Group include distributed PV, energy storage, demand management, electric transportation, distribution system design and operation, microgrids, and transactive energy.  The intersection of the distribution system with heat and fuel applications is an increasingly important area of interest.

Members of the DER Working Group are encouraged to interact with one another via Groups.IO, an online discussion platform and community network. The ESIG Resource Library is also a valuable tool for those seeking information on DER, as well as other topics.

Links to both can be found below:

 

 

 

(Please note: only members of ESIG may participate in the Working/Users Groups. If you are interested in membership, please email us at info@esig.energy)

Working Group Chair: Obadiah Bartholomy, SMUD
Obadiah Bartholomy is the Manager of Distributed Energy Strategy at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. His team is responsible for developing enterprise strategy for addressing the transition to a more distributed energy future. Key areas include working with traditional utility planning departments to modify their processes to incorporate DER adoption implications, as well as developing new business models for the utility to participate in delivering new energy services.

Demand Response

The Demand response project team, under support from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, analyzes the gap of demand response utilization (both the performance gap of demand response that is in the marketplace and the gap between technical potential and demand response in the marketplace) and focuses on understanding the barriers to demand response utilization. A report will be produced on the retrospective and reasons behind the gap and the prospective and what actions can be taken to improve demand response utilization.

Completed Work:

Team lead: Derek Stenclik, Telos Energy
Derek Stenclik is the Founding Partner of Telos Energy, an engineering and analytics firm specializing in renewable integration and power system planning. He has over a decade of experience helping clients across the electric power industry navigate evolving markets, adapt to rapidly changing technologies, and accelerate clean energy integration.

Long-term Load Forecasting

The Long-term Load Forecasting Task Force follows on ESIG’s Long-term Load Forecasting Workshop in Denver. This task force examines how demand will evolve in the next 10-25 years, due to climate change, electrification of buildings/transportation/industry, and new loads such as hydrogen. The summary findings of the June workshop will be used to describe the state of the art, and the initial activities are planned to be focused around identifying use-cases, best practices and gaps.

Task Force Lead: Julieta Giraldez, Director of Integrated Planning, EPE
Julieta Giraldez is Director of Integrated Planning, EPE, where she contributes to solving the challenges facing energy market participants interacting with the evolving electricity grid. Prior to joining EPE, Julieta worked for a decade at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where she lead Smart Grid and Grid Integration related projects integrating emerging technologies such as PV, energy storage and microgrids in distribution systems.

Grid Planning for Building Electrification 

Similar to the Grid Planning for Vehicle Electrification task force, this task force seeks to evaluate the state of the art practice for electrification impacts from building decarbonization and is possible thanks to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). It will evaluate novel planning methods and highlight best practices, identify gaps across all facets of planning, and suggest next steps for the industry. Topics of particular interest include the overlap between planning and operations, the technology evolution required both in buildings themselves and in the grid planning toolkits, and commonalities across regional building electrification impacts.

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Sean Morash, Telos Energy
Sean Morash is a Power System Consultant and Principal at Telos Energy. He has led client engagements with system-level analysis across North America for renewable integration, decarbonization, and reliability assessments. Morash specializes in conveying complex electric sector themes to a range of stakeholder audiences and engaging with clients as an expert witness on utility planning and ISO stakeholder process on the topics of integrated system planning, system reliability, etc. He also performs power system operations modeling and forecasting to assess modernization strategies.

Grid Planning for Vehicle Electrification 

This task force, sponsored by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), seeks to evaluate the state of the art practice for electrification impacts, particularly electric vehicles on grid planning. It will evaluate novel planning methods and identify, develop, and evolve best practices and next steps for planning and operations. Topics of particular interest include dynamic charging behavior, and the impacts of heavy, medium, and light duty vehicles on planning.

Completed Work:

Task Force Lead: Sean Morash, Telos Energy
Sean Morash is a Power System Consultant and Principal at Telos Energy. He has led client engagements with system-level analysis across North America for renewable integration, decarbonization, and reliability assessments. Morash specializes in conveying complex electric sector themes to a range of stakeholder audiences and engaging with clients as an expert witness on utility planning and ISO stakeholder process on the topics of integrated system planning, system reliability, etc. He also performs power system operations modeling and forecasting to assess modernization strategies.

EV Load Forecasting Guide

An EV Load Forecasting Guide is under development for utility load forecasters and state regulators to understand the data needs, methodologies, uncertainties, approaches for forecasting EV charging loads in time and space.  The guide will examine best practices that exist today as well as advanced approaches that may be on the horizon as industry builds better analytical capabilities.

Guide lead: Julieta Giraldez, Director of Integrated Planning, EPE
Julieta Giraldez  is a nationally and internationally recognized subject matter expert in distributed energy resource (DER) grid integration with extensive expertise in grid modeling. She currently works at Electric Power Engineers (EPE) as a Director of Integrated Grid Planning where she implements holistic approaches to meet customers’ needs through the optimized planning and operation of generation, transmission, distribution, and distributed resources. She is also the chair of the Energy Systems Integration (ESIG) Long-Term Load and DER Forecasting Task force. Prior to joining EPE, she served as a Director of Grid Planning at Kevala Inc., where she focused on implementing proactive capacity planning and electrification impact studies for utilities and regulators, and worked for a decade at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where she led Smart Grid and Grid Integration related projects to manage emerging technologies such as PV, energy storage and microgrids in distribution systems.

Technical Advisory Group lead: Sean Morash, Principal, Telos Energy
Sean Morash is a Power System Consultant and Principal at Telos Energy. He has led client engagements with system-level analysis across North America for renewable integration, decarbonization, and reliability assessments. Morash specializes in conveying complex electric sector themes to a range of stakeholder audiences and engaging with clients as an expert witness on utility planning and ISO stakeholder process on the topics of integrated system planning, system reliability, etc. He also performs power system operations modeling and forecasting to assess modernization strategies.

Regulatory Advisory Group lead: Matt Schuerger, Senior Fellow, ESIG
Matt Schuerger is ESIG’s Senior Fellow.  Matt has 40 years of experience in the energy industry, as an engineer, a senior manager, and a regulator, focused on reliability, integrated planning, and distributed energy resources. 

Integrated System Planning 

The Integrated System Planning (ISP) Task Force provides a platform for planners, system operators, researchers, and consultants to discuss, work through, and advance the integration of electric system planning for generation, transmission, distribution, and load.  The task force also reviews and provides feedback on draft work product for the integrated planning guidebook that is under development.

Completed Work:

Integrated System Planning Forum

The ISP Forum provides an opportunity for all who are interested to learn about best practices, tools, and data for integrated electric system planning.  The forum organizes presentations covering recent examples of integrated planning, examples of tools that can link together to provide integrations, and industry needs and research gaps.

ISP Lead:  Matt Schuerger, Senior Fellow, ESIG
Matt Schuerger is ESIG’s Senior Fellow.  Matt has 40 years of experience in the energy industry, as an engineer, a senior manager, and a regulator, focused on reliability, integrated planning, and distributed energy resources. 

Guidebook Lead: Carlo Brancucci, encoord
Carlo Brancucci is the CEO and co-founder of encoord, a software company helping energy utilities plan for the energy transition with an integrated planning solution. Carlo has been working in energy modeling for planning in the US and Europe since 2010.

Recently Completed Work

Modeling the Effects of Distributed Generation on Transmission Infrastructure Investment: A Western Case Study

This project team seeks to understand how distributed resources versus utility-scale resources affect transmission infrastructure investments. It seeks to understand whether distributed resources can reduce, defer, or eliminate transmission needs. It examines how transmission flows change and whether there are common transmission paths for other utility-scale and distributed futures.

Completed work includes:

Project Team Lead: Keegan Moyer, Energy Strategies
Keegan Moyer joined Energy Strategies in 2014 and directs the firm’s transmission and market analyses. His project teams combine grid simulation tools, complex industry datasets, and economic analyses to help clients identify and evaluate generation and transmission investments, market strategies, and energy policies. Keegan is also responsible for the firm’s client services related to interconnections and transmission service.

Aligning Retail Pricing and Grid Needs

The goal of this task force is to explore how we can align price signals and incentives for customers with grid needs to maintain reliability. Our future grid will need flexibility and retail pricing is a powerful way to get flexibility from demand. The task force will bring together retail pricing experts and grid experts to see what types of solutions make sense in a future that is highly decarbonized, as well as a nearer term transition to that future.

Completed white papers include:

“Aligning Retail Pricing and Grid Needs: Introduction to a White Paper Series” by Debra Lew, Erik Ela and Carl Linvill

“Treating Demand Equivalent to Supply in Wholesale Markets: An Opportunity for Customer, Market, and Social Benefits,” by Richard O’Neill, Debra Lew and Erik Ela

“Leveraging Locational and Temporal Flexibility in Transportation Electrification to Benefit Power Systems,” by Jennifer Chen

“Tapping the Mother Lode: Employing Price-Responsive Demand to Reduce the Investment Challenge,” by Michael Hogan

“Why Is the Smart Grid So Dumb?: Missing Incentives in Regulatory Policy for an Active Demand Side in the Electricity Sector,” by Travis Kavulla

“Rate Design for the Energy Transition: Getting the Most out of Flexible Loads on a Changing Grid,” by Arne Olson and Lindsay Bertrand

“Heat Pump–Friendly Cost-Based Rate Designs,” by Sanem Sergici, Akhilesh Ramakrishnan, Goksin Kavlak, Adam Bigelow, and Megan Diehl

Task Force Lead: Carl Linvill, Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)
Carl Linvill is a principal with the Regulatory Assistance Project. With his expertise in power sector markets, procurement, and planning, he leads RAP’s work on renewable energy integration and transmission planning in the Western United States.

 

DER Integration Series

This series of three reports examines major elements of the integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into power systems. These resources—generation, storage, electric vehicles, and responsive load connected to the distribution system—can provide a range of benefits for electricity systems and customers. Unlocking these benefits, however, requires concerted and coordinated action among electricity regulators, electric distribution companies, bulk power system operators, retailers and other service providers, customers, and equipment manufacturers.

Completed work includes:

Task Force Lead: Priya Sreedharan, GridLab
Priya Sreedharan has been a program director with GridLab since May 2020 working to scale up GridLab’s efforts on electricity sector transformation. Drawing from a research and analysis foundation, she has held multiple technical leadership roles, and was most recently at the U.S. Agency for International Development–India for 5 years where she helped launch clean energy and air quality efforts, including India’s seminal Greening the Grid renewables integration study.