New SEPA publication provides industry clarity on DERMS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) has announced the release of the Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) Requirements Document, Version 2.0.

DERMS 2.0 provides a common set of DERMS requirements for use within the electric utility industry. The update includes more details, descriptions of terminology, and practical use cases. The goal is to simplify the procurement process for electric utilities and other stakeholders seeking to implement DERMS.

“Considering the increasing levels of distributed energy resources in California, grid management functionality needs to evolve to include DER awareness and leverage distributed energy resources controls to manage and optimize the grid,” said Moein Lak of Southern California Edison.

This work began in 2016, co-led by representatives from Southern California Edison, Duke Energy and ComEd, and the Grid Management Working Group with coordination and moderation supplied by SEPA to harness the best thinking from utility professionals to develop the DERMS Requirements Document.

“Our efforts continued in 2018 under the guidance of the DERMS Task Force, comprised of utilities, solution providers, researchers and trade groups. We developed almost 800 foundational requirements that will help reduce development risks and deployment costs for the entire sector,” said Andrew Cotter, Senior Manager of Technical Services.

“With more than 32 GW of solar PV installed in the past three years, storage forecasted to grow to 125 GW by 2030, EV growth increasing 81% in 2018 from 2017, and new forms of customer demand response programs coming on line, the timing is now to define the platforms systems to control this new mix,” stated Sharon Allan, Chief Innovation Officer of SEPA. “SEPA has been happy to lead this important effort and is thankful for the industry response to such an important topic.”

Media contact: Adam Wasserman, [email protected] or Holly DeLoache, [email protected]