Distribution operators at utility companies are faced with the current and emerging challenge of integrating distributed solar and other DER's for use in reliability on electrical distribution circuits. The economic implications include power curtailment and paying other neighboring states to take power off the grid for excess generation as well as customer incentives and behavior for installing their own systems. There are new regulations for communication and operational standards that are being developed(by the CPUC through the Smart Inverter Working Group), but the optimal mechanism for communication and control between utility companies and solar installers has yet to be determined. This prevents a large problem and opportunity for a standard aggregation platform to provide consistent and actionable analytics on residential and commercial solar energy generation to utility companies. This platform would need to provide grid operators a visualization and communication channel to the solar assets performance and how it relates to grid situational awareness. The distribution grid operator would also be able to instruct the system owner or energy management company how the equipment should be controlled and what the financial incentives are. The distribution grid will continue to move towards more generation capabilities and a new integrated solution must be developed.
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