VOICES of Experience

A System in Transition: The Influence of Next Generation Technologies

The electric distribution system in the United States is in a transitional state. While it is being modernized to support the country’s changing energy mix and the needs of 21st century electrification, the transition is far from complete. To maintain forward momentum, regulators are having to evaluate a new class of “next-generation technologies” proposed by utilities. These innovative technologies are not one-for-one replacements of aging infrastructure. Technological advancements and evolving societal and customer preferences are driving changes that are raising more complex and fundamental questions for regulators.
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An EV Future: Navigating the Transition

The wave of transportation electrification is on the horizon. With millions of personal and commercial electric vehicles set to hit U.S. roads in the coming decade, that wave may be more like a tsunami. Merging the transportation and electricity sectors has the potential to fundamentally transform how customers fuel vehicles and how goods are transported across the country. It will introduce new dynamics. It will involve myriad stakeholders across the sectors. It will redefine relationships, introduce new partnerships, and require new thinking. Electric vehicles offer exciting opportunities with numerous environmental and economic benefits, but change isn’t always easy and the road ahead will have many twists and turns. The report documents stakeholder perspectives on the many facets of the transition to electrified transportation and its integration with the electric grid.
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Microgrids for Resiliency

Resilience – the ability to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from utility disruptions while sustaining mission-critical operations – is increasingly a focus for utilities, policy makers, regulators, and community leaders. While some utilities own and operate microgrids to help ensure supply to critical customers and areas, customers such as the Department of Defense and corporate data centers also own and operate microgrids to prevent power disruptions and to mitigate the consequences of outages when they do occur. Whether utility or customer, owners of existing and proposed microgrids could benefit from increased dialogue about the challenges, insights, advice, and lessons learned through deploying and operating microgrids. A key focus is exploring the value that microgrids provide to both utilities and customers.
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Microgrid Compendium: Microgrid Controller Performance Specifications

Microgrid controllers are a key component of a microgrid. The microgrid controller is used to optimize, manage, and control the DERs within the microgrid boundary as well as controlling how the microgrid as a whole communicates with the larger grid to provide grid services. The content in this document was developed by Southern Company to compile use cases and functionalities for microgrid controllers and outline how they can be operated to meet different needs.
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Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence—the development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence—is gaining traction in the electric power industry. Utilities are finding that it has potential across the utility value chain including customer operations, smart grid, outage management, asset management, supply chain and market operations to name a few. At the same time, there are barriers for utilities that will pose challenges—at least in the near term. This Voices of Experience will help utilities understand how artificial intelligence may help improve their operations, where the challenges are and what other utilities are learning through their own experience.
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AMI in Review: Informing the Conversation

Numerous utility AMI proposals have been approved over the past decade; however, recent years have seen noteworthy denials. Understanding the transformative potential of AMI but not seeking to offer an opinion on state actions, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Grid Research Division (AGR) undertook a phased research study to investigate regulatory applications from various parties’ perspective. The resulting report captures the findings and collective insights gained through an in-depth analysis of public records and conversations with more than 120 individuals from utilities, advocates, and commissions across the U.S.
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Compendium for AMI in Review

As part of the analysis of regulatory filings, a database with over 250 relevant proceedings related to AMI deployment, cost recovery, commission rulemakings, smart grid reports, and other topics was developed. The following report compiles information from the more than 640 documents that were reviewed. It is organized alphabetically by state and provides links to significant documents from each proceeding along with the relevant page numbers and specific testimony presented.
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Leveraging AMI Networks and Data

The original business cases for implementing an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) focused on the cost savings that could be achieved from avoided truck rolls and the end of manual meter reading. Now more than a decade since smart meters hit the industry, utilities are learning that the value of AMI goes far beyond logging energy usage. Advanced meters are end-point sensors that provide granular information on system operations enabling utilities to operate more efficiently and on customer energy usage providing opportunities to develop a new relationship with their customers. This report documents how engineers, data analysts, product developers, customer service representatives, and people throughout the organization are digging into the data, pairing it with other data, asking more questions, gaining insights and making data-driven decisions.
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July 11, 2019 - Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) blogs: "Beyond Billing: Unlocking Value with AMI" - Click here to read.

Integrating Intermittent Resources

From Hawaii to New York utilities are preparing their systems for a growing penetration of customer-sited generation. They are testing and adopting new technology designed to provide better visibility and control; collecting and interpreting the increasing amounts of data needed to plan, forecast and model their future systems; and focusing on their customers - listening and responding like never before - plus streamlining their processes to enable faster interconnections with more transparency. The report documents what utilities are learning about operating differently, streamlining the interconnection process, planning and forecasting with these new resources, understanding hosting capacity, testing advanced inverters, and engaging their customers.
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Advanced Distribution Management Systems

Today, a number of utilities are implementing advanced distribution management systems (ADMS), a software platform that integrates numerous utility systems and provides automated outage restoration and optimization of distribution grid performance. In effect, ADMS transitions utilities from paperwork, manual processes, and siloed software systems to systems with real-time and near-real-time data, automated processes, and integrated systems. The report provides practical advice to assist utilities in deploying an ADMS including insights on making the business case, defining requirements and selecting a vendor, preparing the data, integrating systems, and governing the project.
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Smart Grid Customer Engagement

The success of the Smart Grid will depend in part on consumers taking a more proactive role in managing their energy use, and customer engagement within the electric power industry is an evolving, ongoing process. The report compiles practical advice on the successful approaches used by utilities to engage customers regarding smart grid technology deployments, and includes insights and examples about articulating the vision and guiding principles, developing a customer-centric engagement plan, developing a budget and preparing the business case.
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