Lumidyne Consulting has released a modeling Software as a Service (SaaS) tool that helps electric distribution utilities and other organizations integrate distributed energy resources (DERs) into their planning processes.
The modeling software called SPIDER will assist customers to
# Forecast spatial adoption and grid impacts of solar PV, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery storage
# Help grid planners minimize distribution system costs while ensuring system reliability
# Help city planners estimate EV charging station infrastructure requirements
# Update forecasts with new data through automated calibration
# Analyze different policy, technology or electric rate scenarios
# Account for interactions among and uncertainty across DERs
“Failing to account for DERs in the planning process can result in higher distribution system costs or reduced distribution system reliability,” said Cory Welch, founder and president of Lumidyne Consulting.
A recent NREL study said that the utility-cost impacts of mis-forecasting distributed PV adoption can be non-trivial … up to $7 million per terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity sales.
The state of California requires investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to integrate DERs into their distribution planning processes. Other states such as Nevada and Minnesota are following suit.
Lumidyne’s SPIDER model employs a method called System Dynamics, a modeling technique invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
SPIDER is being applied in San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) service territory to facilitate distribution system planning and in the City of Fresno, California, to estimate EV charging station infrastructure requirements.
The SPIDER model is built in Analytica, a software platform developed by decision-analysis and software experts at Lumina Decision Systems.