CHALLENGE

The modern electric grid has become increasingly dependent on, and equally challenged by, the surge of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). It is crucial these DERs be mapped in an enterprise GIS to analyze the effects the DER penetration on the grid and produce various reports and dashboards for regulatory compliance, daily operations, and internal decision-makers. Unfortunately, many utilities find it cumbersome and error-prone to collect the source data, and use manual processes to input and maintain DER information in their GIS. Furthermore, a proper DER data model must be comprehensive and highly flexible to account for the various types and configurations of current DERs, while also being adaptable to newer technologies and future industry advancements.

SOLUTION

After identifying the necessary requirements, a robust DER data model and GIS feature class were built to support the current and future inflows of DER projects. Two primary factors were considered when constructing the data model: (1) the downstream systems that would use the DER data from GIS (e.g. ADMS, DERMS, agency reports, etc.), and (2) the structure of and business processes to manage the source data.

Once the requirements for the GIS data model for DERs were established and implemented, the next major step was to build a DER data pipeline with automations and regularly scheduled tasks to transfer the DER projects from the record data sources to the GIS features with as little manual intervention as possible. Since numerous source types for the DER data often exist, all with substantially different modeling and formatting, the pipeline (a.k.a. pipe and filter) architecture was selected to merge the complete set of DER information into one final data model in GIS.

RESULT

The comprehensive, holistic, and automated design-state DER data model and pipeline architecture was massively successful for the organization. What began as a request to map the DERs in GIS specifically for a couple downstream applications (ADMS and DERMS) was recognized and solicited as an opportunity to build a complete, enterprise-wide DER data store and pipeline for many business groups to utilize to solve a wide range of business problems.

Today, the DER data is pulled from the GIS pipeline to augment business decisions in ways the organization had not envisioned when embarking on the initial effort. Additional applications, such as PRECISE and the distribution planning software, leverage this custom model to improve the analysis of the DER impacts to the grid. Moreover, the quality of the DER reports and dashboards are substantially improved from their prior state.