With the rapid integration of renewable and distributed energy technologies onto the grid, utilities are challenged with maintaining power quality, balancing supply and demand, and ensuring adequate distribution capacity. Itron brings the tools and expertise to help utilities do exactly that.

We are excited to share that Itron was recently recognized as a Representative Vendor in the 2022 Gartner Market Guide for Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems, which provides insight into distributed energy resource (DER) grid and market integration as well as new regulatory mandates. For this Market Guide, Gartner stated, “We selected the vendors profiled in this guide to represent the breadth of offerings in this market, covering different aspects of DER’s impact on utility business. Offerings spanned from energy commodity market integration to addressing the impact on grid operation and DER control. We endeavored to provide a good geographical spread of the leading and emerging vendors in this market.”

Itron offers an ever-expanding ecosystem of compatible behind-the-meter devices to support customer choice and DER adoption; real-time visibility and forecasting of DER operations and their impacts on the low-voltage distribution network and the bulk power system; and orchestrate DER operations to deliver a range of load-shaping outcomes. Itron’s DER Optimizer solution also enables utilities to expand their legacy demand response programs to include a wide range of DERs, including electric vehicles, smart inverters, battery storage systems and other flexible loads. In turn, DER Optimizer’s real-time analytics and optimization engine allows utilities to strategically grow their program portfolio to a wide range of DER-based grid services.

A few key findings from the Gartner report include:

• “Distributed energy resource (DER) deployment is accelerating, propelled by regulatory mandates such as FERC 2222 and the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive.”
• “Utilities urgently need to integrate and orchestrate DERs to retain network resilience while increasing the percentage of renewables on the grid. By integrating consumer-owned DERs they can provide a widening range of flexibility services such as virtual reserve and frequency response.”
• “Alliances, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions have been a feature of vendor activities in the last year as the DERMS market continues to move across the Hype Cycle for Digital Grid Transformation Technologies. This means technology and offerings are maturing but no single vendor can meet all requirements.”
• “Utilities are seeking a comprehensive DERMS solution that spans from planning and customer enrollment to operations and market integration. But those expectations exceed current market offerings which tend to serve a core use case well (e.g., network impact) and have limited capabilities across adjacent use cases.”

To download the report, visit our landing page. To learn more about the benefits of distributed energy resources and their impact on the grid with Itron’s DERMS solution, visit www.itron.com/DERMS.

Gartner, Market Guide for Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems, Lloyd Jones, Zarko Sumic, 11 July 2022.

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