Entergy creates new approaches to better manage the grid that involve more distributed energy resources.
Today, approximately 120 megawatts of customer-owned distributed energy resources, almost all rooftop photovoltaic systems, are spread out over 20,000 connections at various customer locations throughout Entergy Corp.’s system. Approximately 83.5 MW of utility-scale solar generation is currently in operation, and additional solar generation is under development. The company’s distributed energy resources exist in variations, including utility-scale, utility-owned, behind-the-meter and customer-owned solutions. The incorporation and improved visibility into and management of DERs is key to the utility’s approach to providing increased resiliency to customers in higher-risk weather-prone areas, such as New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Change & Growth
As DERs and new technology appear in increasing numbers on the grid, they are changing customer expectations for reliability and service. They are also challenging grid operations as the company juggles the impacts of new assets, particularly those that are customer-owned or third-party-owned at the grid’s edge. Fortunately, these assets often are intelligent and can be remotely controlled assuming that communications can be addressed as well as access rights. This distributed intelligence capability creates opportunities to co-optimize and integrate the operation of both utility- and customer-owned assets. Co-optimization requires enhanced telecommunications, cybersecurity and distributed analytics to manage rapidly changing bidirectional power flows.
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