Integrating Renewable Energy into E&U’s Main Grid

September 11, 2023

Our client

Our client is an energy and utility (E&U) company that provides natural gas and electricity to millions of customers in its state. The company is improving their energy infrastructure for safety and reliability by investing in clean energy and advanced grid technologies. They are also aiming for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.

Challenge

Our client implements remote grids (also referred to as “smart grids and “microgrids”) in sparsely populated areas where perhaps 10 or 15 houses are clustered together. In these cases, it’s not feasible to set up a transformer and poles, especially since these areas are prone to wildfires. These remote grids are smaller, and often use renewable sources, like solar panels.

However, when these remote grids were first installed, they were stand-alone and not integrated into our client’s main grid. Our task was to set the connections up so that the client would have the ability to integrate solar and wind energy from remote grids into their main distribution management system, as well as incorporate local area data into their hazardous awareness warning center to detect potential wildfires.

Action

We built APIs for integration using our client’s selected API platform. We provided our client with ample resources such as a Customer Success Lead, a Delivery Partner, and an API platform advisor to ensure the success of the project. We utilized our highly regarded offshore team of developers and testers, who offered expert tech skills efficiently and cost effectively.

Result

The client was extremely pleased with the remote grid project results, which will allow them to integrate the renewable energy into their main distribution management system, as well as readily access data on potential wildfires.

Next steps

Because of the success of the remote grid project, the client asked Prolifics to lead several all-day workshops to help outline their five-year enterprise integration plan strategy. From this, we will help our client with their integration of their distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) into their advanced distribution management system (ADMS). We are also undertaking our client’s customer outage journey, or the integration of processes and information to ensure a top customer experience in the notification of planned outages. And, because of our API platform expertise, the client is considering a platform managed services arrangement, which will free up their people for higher level projects.

About Prolifics

At Prolifics, we know E&U and we’ll help you keep the lights on. As a digital engineering and consulting firm, we work with energy and utility companies on a wide range of issues, providing our clients with inventive, cost-effective solutions. This includes modernizing your advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and integrating all related application interfaces; integrating your distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) with your ADMS; mobile functionality at your facilities and in the field; managed services; and more. We’ll help you navigate and accelerate your digital transformation journey – and power your success. Visit our Energy & Utilities page to learn more. https://prolifics.com/us/industries/energy-utilities