DER: Another reason why Renewable Energy wins – CleanTechnica

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Renewable energy is upending the relationship between tariff rates and their services. It is moving the electricity grid away from dependence on large, top-down centralized power plants and into a new landscape of localized and distributed energy sources, where every ratepayer can play a role in grid services. This can be financially rewarding from the taxpayer’s perspective, and a new report from Deloitte highlights how services can also benefit.

DER, Renewable Energy and the Electric Home of the Future

Distributed energy resources (DER) refer to small-scale local energy sources, including energy storage. In terms of renewable energy, solar panels are an ideal fit due to their ease of scaling and widespread deployment options. Small wind turbines and distributed wind projects also fit into the DER model.

DER complements the building electrification movement. In addition to stand-alone renewable energy sources, DER includes home energy storage systems, heat pumps and other electrical equipment, in addition to rooftop solar arrays and electric vehicles.

Utilities that organize distributed resources across their service territory can avoid the need to build expensive new gas peaking plants to meet daily cycles of high energy demand. Instead, the utility could deploy new grid management tools that offer ratepayers financial incentives to coordinate their electricity demand, effectively acting as a virtual power plant.

These demand response strategies motivate ratepayers to help balance the grid by shifting their electricity use to different times of the day. Demand response programs can also enable ratepayers to sell excess power to the grid.

Optimizing Renewable Energy

In addition to the potential for cost savings, DER management tools can enable utilities to deploy a grid mix that reduces fossil fuel inputs and maximizes renewable energy. “DER could fundamentally change the way the electric grid works,” the US Department of Energy has observed. “With DER, power is generated right where it is used and can be connected to other DERs to optimize its use.”

“Households and other electricity consumers are also part-time producers, selling excess generation to the grid and to each other,” the Department of Energy explains, describing how DER is an enabler of local production and consumption patterns. .

“Energy storage, such as batteries, can also be distributed, helping to provide power when solar or other DERs are not producing power,” they point out.

Renewable Energy and Ratepayer Engagement

In this photo, Deloitte opens with a new report that aims to advise utilities on the most effective course of action to maximize DER in their service territory. In addition to the financial benefits, Deloitte highlights the importance of the renewable energy transition for individual households.

“Home energy use is being transformed, placing enterprises at the center of two important trends: decarbonisation and customer affordability,” sums up Deloitte.

“Individual purchases of smart home appliances, solar and storage systems, and electric vehicles (EVs) are exponentially increasing the number of distributed energy resources (DERs) that can flexibly generate, store, or draw power from the grid,” adds the signature.

The report also encourages utilities to advocate for a regulatory framework that supports their DER plan. Households are driving the purchase of electrical appliances and vehicles, so Deloitte advises companies to focus on the benefits for ratepayers.

The firm also notes that a successful DER network can avoid costs associated with new transmission and distribution infrastructure, in addition to preventing new fossil fuel power plants.

“…if utilities successfully engage customers, they can leverage DER to help meet peak clean energy demand and provide essential grid services, sharing revenue and sustainability benefits equally with households and putting downward pressure on rates,” explains Deloitte.

“This is the case that utilities must make to secure regulatory support for DER integration plans,” Deloitte concludes, encouraging utilities to “focus on affordability first.”

Texas, of course

Of course, no mention of DER would be complete without mentioning Texas, where wind and solar resources are abundant and the regulatory environment favors innovation in the renewable energy space.

In 2020, CleanTechnica had an opportunity to learn how startups are pitching DER, ratepayer engagement and renewable energy optimization opportunities in Texas in a conversation with Evolve Energy founder Michael Lee. His company was acquired by UK-based mainstream firm Octopus Energy, which uses DER to offer its customers the cheapest renewable energy rates available.

“People have a hard time understanding kilowatts, but they understand money,” Lee said CleanTechnicasumming up the DER movement in a nutshell.

Since then, Texas energy planners have stepped up their game. In May of this year, for example, the University of Texas at Arlington received a $1.6 million federal grant to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory under the umbrella of an ongoing research program called the Pilot Project of Texas Aggregate Distributed Energy Resources. The program began in 2022 under the authority of the State Public Utilities Commission.

“ADER is the collection of behind-the-meter energy devices and capabilities that can be called upon to perform an action, such as reducing energy consumption or providing more energy,” explains the University of Texas.

The goals of the ADER program include increasing grid reliability and resiliency, eliminating transmission bottlenecks, reducing utility bills and supporting more renewable energy production in Texas.

UTA notes that utilities, utility commissions, independent system operators, aggregator providers and retail electricity providers are among the stakeholders collaborating in this effort through the ADER task force. That includes Texas-based power distribution firm CenterPoint Energy as the task force’s chair.

CenterPoint Energy is an interesting choice as a chair. The company bills itself as “the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas,” but its service territory extends far beyond state lines to include more than 7 million ratepayers spread across Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota , Mississippi and Ohio as well. like Texas.

More renewable energy for Texas and beyond

CenterPoint’s size and scope reflects the Department of Energy’s broader goal of accelerating regional and state wholesale DER electricity markets in Texas and beyond. “The project’s objectives are very aligned with our task force,” CenterPoint vice president of government affairs Jason Ryan noted in a press release.

Tesla is also represented as vice chair of the task force. At a working group meeting last August, the company indicated that the ADER program is progressing from its initial stages to the stage of supporting “investment grade” participation in the DER landscape from a wide range of stakeholders, including funding federal low-income housing as well. as a private sector company.

Stay tuned for more (a lot more) renewable energy news from Texas, where renewable energy investment is hot despite the state’s leading position in the fossil energy sector.

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Image: The US Department of Energy is encouraging a new “prosumer” model that enables ratepayers to participate in managing the grid using small-scale, distributed and renewable energy sources (courtesy US DOE).