<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2T6Irh_1H41tTHy00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2T6Irh_1H41tTHy00" width="1280" height="866" ></figure><p>A distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) can help utilities unlock the capabilities of flexible demand-side energy, but implementing one can be daunting. For many considering DERMS, the question is no longer whether to deploy, but where to start. </p><p>New to DERMS: Beginning the journey to next-gen grid management, a recent web event on <i>Factor This</i>, walked through the practical first steps of a DERMS implementation: building the business case, defining initial uses, including distributed energy resource (DER) visibility, demand response, and EV charging coordination, aligning IT and operations stakeholders, and selecting an architecture that scales as the program grows.</p><p>Amy Bartak, director of DERMS initiatives and customer engagement at Open Access Technology International (OATI), directs a discussion between two representatives from electric cooperatives fresh from their own DERMS journey. Todd Clouse, energy services manager at Ozarks Electric Cooperative, and Mason Milligan, manager of member technical services at Big Rivers Electric Corporation, explain how they pushed their business cases through the board, senior staff, and member-owners, detailing what each needed to see. They share what they found earns a “yes” and paths to go-live, including how program purpose, tariffs, and member concerns shaped the rules each cooperative launched with. Clouse and Milligan reflect on their experiences and suggest where other utilities might start, plus what they can expect down the road.</p><p>Watch the on-demand web event for free any time here.</p><h2>In the Beginning</h2><p>Big Rivers Electric Corporation, based in Owensboro, Kentucky, has three member owners serving 22 counties across roughly 140,000 accounts.</p><p>When Milligan started at Big Rivers, he recognized the value of a demand response program, seeing how it would benefit the cooperative’s members and bolster its generation fleet.</p><p>“But we don’t know how to do that,” Milligan recalled, citing turnover within the organization and the difficulties surrounding introducing new ideas. “How do we develop this road map?”</p><p>To level the playing field, Big Rivers conducted an education series with its internal senior staff, member owners, and its board. Call it DERMS 101.</p><p>“Here’s what it is. Here’s how it can be. Here’s the positives and negatives, and here’s how we plan on shaping this,” Milligan recounted.</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QMm8T0pDZw0?feature=oembed" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div><p>Ozarks Electric Cooperative serves more than 85,000 members across northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma. It met with its first DERMS vendor in late 2019 or early 2020.</p><p>“It seemed like a lot of that technology was around devices that would actually connect to a water heater or a thermostat, so there was a couple of years where we were waiting for the technology to catch up to where you could just connect to that integration seamlessly,” remembered Clouse.</p><p>Then in 2023, Ozarks worked with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) to establish a technology roadmap.</p><p>“That was a huge help, and honestly, I feel like that was the thing that really got us over the finish line and able to get this program up and running this year,” Clouse told the audience.</p><h2>A Delicate Approach to Demand Response</h2><p>Getting a DERMS program off the ground can be difficult. If you’re receiving complaints and nobody cares to participate or operate it, it serves no value, warned Milligan. A delicate approach to adoption could make the difference.</p><p>“Our initial strategy for our smart thermostat program is going to be really almost like a MISO LMR program where you got a handful of events seasonally depending on grid constrained conditions and things like that,” Milligan outlined. “Almost like an insurance policy versus monthly peak clipping-type programs.”</p><p>Milligan called it a “mentality adoption adjustment” for folks without a background in the demand response space. </p><p>“We’re trying to change that thought process, but also not put off too many of the end-use consumers,” said Milligan.</p><p>Ozarks faced similar challenges.</p><p>“Member satisfaction’s right up there at the top for us,” reported Clouse. “We know we have rate increases that are coming that are inevitable. We don’t want (DERMS) to just be one of those things where ‘this is the way it is, this is how it’s going to be.’ We want to offer options to our members.”</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SALo98LPaPQ?feature=oembed" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div><p>Big Rivers is preparing to launch a behavioral program and its thermostat program. Once those are established, Milligan has more in store.</p><p>“Our next phase will be looking at doing conservation voltage reduction (CVR) across our three members in unison,” Milligan shared, noting that the Big River system is operated as a portfolio asset, delivering the benefits of scale to its member owners.</p><p>Then if he had a vote? </p><p>“Home generators would be pretty high on our list because you’re getting much more bang for the buck.”</p><p>Over at Ozarks, Clouse says anything is on the table, so long as it helps the members.</p><p>“The bottom line is what it boils down to,” he summarized. “If the numbers pencil out and it’s something that can benefit anybody… Because again, we ultimately try to find those win-win scenarios. Does this work for us? Does it also help the members at the other end of the spectrum?”</p><div style="position:relative;width:100%; height:0; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0TohpKB1izU?feature=oembed" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" style="width:100%; height:100%;top:0; left:0; position:absolute"></iframe></div><p>Watch the on-demand web event for free any time here.</p></div></body>

Block Source: RenewableEnergyWorld.com

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A distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) can help utilities unlock the capabilities of flexible demand-side energy, but implementing one can be daunting. For many considering DERMS, the question is no longer whether to deploy, but where to start. New to DERMS: Beginning the journey to next-gen grid management, a...

Electric cooperatives detail first steps of DERMS implementation

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A distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) can help utilities unlock the capabilities of flexible demand-side energy, but implementing one ca

Electric cooperatives detail first steps of DERMS implementation

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