Schneider Electric and PG&E Deploy Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) on Microsoft Azure

Strategic Insights -

Schneider Electric and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) have deployed a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) on Microsoft Azure to enhance grid reliability and accelerate the adoption of distributed energy resources (DER) such as electric vehicles, energy storage, and rooftop solar. The DERMS technology provides greater visibility into DER behavior and enables intelligent control, allowing for more proactive management of the grid and ensuring safe, secure, and resilient energy delivery. This cloud-based platform, EcoStruxure DERMS, integrates, analyzes, and optimizes data from various DER sources, providing electric grid operators with enhanced communication and coordination capabilities to unlock the value of DER as flexible grid resources.

Key Takeaways:

  • PG&E serves over 16 million people across Northern and Central California, with a focus on delivering clean and reliable energy to its customers.
  • The DERMS technology provides a cloud-based, grid-aware software platform that integrates, analyzes, and optimizes data from DER sources like solar, electric vehicles, battery energy storage, and microgrids.
  • EcoStruxure DERMS has helped PG&E connect over 700,000 customers with rooftop solar to the electric grid and over 55,000 customers with battery energy storage systems, totaling over 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
  • PG&E has made significant progress in deploying grid-scale battery energy storage, with a capacity of 1,200 MW online and plans to reach 1,700 MW by September 2023, or enough to meet the instantaneous demand of 1.2 million homes at once.
  • PG&E has contracts for battery energy storage systems totaling over 3,000 MW to be deployed over the next few years, with a goal of supporting three million EVs on the road in its service area by 2030.

Statistics:

  • PQ&E serves over 16 million people across Northern and Central California.
  • The DERMS technology has helped PG&E connect over 700,000 customers with rooftop solar to the electric grid.
  • PG&E has connected over 55,000 customers with battery energy storage systems, totaling over 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
  • PG&E has deployed 1,200 MW of grid-scale battery energy storage and plans to reach 1,700 MW by September 2023.
  • PG&E has contracts for battery energy storage systems totaling over 3,000 MW to be deployed over the next few years.

Sources:

  • Patti Poppe, Chief Executive Officer, PG&E Corporation, "PG&E is partnering with the best and the brightest to deliver breakthrough solutions for our customers."
  • Annette Clayton, Chief Executive Officer of Schneider Electric North America, "This methodology empowers utility companies to digitally transform to achieve their sustainability, efficiency, reliability, and flexibility goals."
  • Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Energy & Resources Industry at Microsoft, "Collaboration is key to addressing the complex global energy challenges and achieving a more sustainable future."