DER Integration from Transmission and Distribution Perspectives: VELCO and National Grid Experience (Video)

This presentation covers various aspects of DER integration for transmission and distribution system perspectives. VELCO will share its experience with DER integration from transmission system perspective, and National Grid – from distribution system perspective.
VELCO’s structure as a transmission-only utility and the limits of its responsibilities have made DER integration from a transmission perspective particularly challenging in Vermont. In the last six years, the installed capacity of DER has reached approximately 400 MW, or 40% of Vermont’s system peak load. Such a large amount of DER requires VELCO to improve DER visibility and short-term forecasting. VELCO has also conducted short term planning studies to help reduce renewable generation curtailments aggravated by growing DER, and long-term planning studies under various DER forecast scenarios to inform stakeholders where it would be best to install future DER projects.
National Grid will cover hosting capacity of DER from a distribution perspective and value stacking of energy storage. A demonstration of the National Grid hosting map will be made and information regarding recent enhancements and future enhancements will be presented. In addition, two industry leading energy storage projects will be described along with identification of the key challenges and plans to overcome them.