O&R, Smarter Grid Solutions seek ways to get more clean energy to the grid

PEARL RIVER — Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. announced this week that it is partnering with Smarter Grid Solutions, Inc. (SGS), in the hope to increase exports of renewable energy.
SGS is one of the leading providers of distributed energy resource management software, on a demonstration project to help developers interconnect solar energy projects to the power grid and drive greater export of renewable energy on O&R’s system.
The project will test technologies which will monitor, measure and regulate the transfer of electricity from large-scale solar projects into the O&R system. O&R serves parts of New York and West Milford, N.J.
Those technologies will manage the power flow to match the real-time capacity available in the O&R system.
This project will provide solar developers an alternative interconnection technology in lieu of traditional electric infrastructure upgrades.
Regulating the timing and volume of the power flow into the space available on the O&R system has been shown to alleviate the need for costly new infrastructure to accommodate more power in certain situations, resulting in increased cleaner energy available to customers.
On July 19, the New York State Public Service Commission endorsed the project as meeting the objectives of the state’s initiative to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.
This project also supports the state’s Clean Energy Standard which requires 50 percent of New York state’s electricity be provided by renewable energy by 2030.
“This approach makes a lot of sense to us," O&R Vice President – Operations Francis W. Peverly said. "It will allow us to better utilize large-scale solar capacity, while improving the economics of the solar project for developers. We will be able to match a solar project’s output to the capacity available on our system, providing for more opportunities to foster clean energy projects for our customers.”
Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) is a leading provider of distributed resource management system (DERMS) software with more than 300 MW of generation and load under real-time control.
With offices in New York, Glasgow and London, SGS is a global solutions provider to distribution utilities, distribution network operators and distributed energy resource providers.
In New York State, SGS is deploying technology with four of the six distribution utilities to achieve the objectives set forth under the state’s Reforming the Energy Vision framework.