National Grid to test first distribution service platform under REV

Dive Brief:

National Grid has tapped Opus One Solutions to develop "the first field demonstration of a distributed system platform," to integrate distributed energy resources from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus onto the utility's local grid.
The project will move distributed resources a step closer to market integration, creating markets, tariffs and operational systems that allow the utility to purchase and aggregate the energy.
National Grid's project is being developed as part of New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, which aims to reimagine the utility sector business model and bring more clean energy resources online. The utility has three other REV-focused projects, including a community solar program in Buffalo.

Dive Insight:

Utilities have been primarily working to bring online individual distributed resources, but National Grid's partnership with Opus One is expected to yield what amounts to a small marketplace for resources at the medical campus.

“This first-of-its-kind platform can become a blueprint for utilities across North America," Opus One President and CEO Joshua Wong said in a statement. The utility partnership will bring "real-time visibility and management to the electricity distribution system and to enable new utility business models for the future,” he said.

The companies said they will spend two years collaborating on details from financial modeling to the design, commissioning and operation of a real-time DSP market. Under the REV, utilities will act as a kind of air traffic controller, overseeing the integration and management of distributed energy resources from third party providers. The new platform will communicate grid needs, and in parallel generate potential revenue and investment opportunities for distributed resources on the campus.

In addition to the distributed platform, National Grid is also working on a community solar program in the Fruit Belt neighborhood of Buffalo, near the medical campus. The utility has other REV-focused projects, including developing a community microgrid in Potsdam with Clarkson University, and developing a demand response program in Clifton Park, N.Y.