Grid Edge Engagements

Consumer adoption of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) including solar, energy storage, electrification, demand response and energy efficiency are anticipated to grow rapidly in the future. Today, parts of the U.S. and the world are already experiencing the impacts of rapid DER adoption.

In the Tennessee Valley, consumer demand for DER is creating an opportunity for new products, services and consumer choices. It is also creating the need for better forecasting.

There are four focus areas that will support providing an integrated and cost effective suite of options:

• DER Technologies
  Identify and characterize DER technologies to understand performance, cost and potential application. Work in this focus area  is twofold: 1.) evaluating emerging technologies by participating in national research efforts, and 2.) engaging innovative vendors, and then creating a database of DER technology characteristics and a resource list of valuable external sources
• Market Evolution
  Seek to understand consumer preferences for and adoption of various DER and energy services. In this area, we will be working to track trends in the adoption of various DER technologies and services. A key part of the research will be to develop tools to predict DER adoption using market and consumer preference information
• Impacts and Valuation
  Determine the value and potential impacts (positive and negative) of DER to consumers and to the power system. Enterprise Research + Technology Innovation will identify these impacts by developing more accurate, integrated system models. Work in this area will also include conducting a microgrid feasibility study to feed microgrid/DER test bed, and establishing a TVA storage working group to determine the value of various energy storage scenarios
• Deployment
  Technology Innovation research will support the planning, evaluation and deployment of DER options. Working in this focus area we anticipate facilitating future collaborative demonstrations. To support the LPC community, Enterprise Research + Technology Innovation will expand its tools to anticipate the effects of solar hosting capacity and solar adoption for distribution systems.