MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Open Systems International, Inc. (OSI) and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) are positioned to form a strategic technology partnership to implement and deploy an industry-leading Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS). Bringing together SMUD’s expanding operational requirements for intelligent distributed energy resource (DER) management with OSI’s leadership in real-time automation, control, and DER management software will result in a state-of-the-art, advanced DERMS solution ready for worldwide adoption.
Serving 592,000 customers with over 650,000 service points, SMUD is the sixth-largest public utility in the United States. A California utility with approximately 300 megawatts (MW) of solar power in its service territory, SMUD anticipates continued growth of DERs in their network—providing both operational challenges and business opportunities. Together, SMUD and OSI will implement and deploy a sophisticated DERMS solution that will address operational challenges such as voltage swings, reverse power flows, and rapidly changing net demand, while optimizing economic value of DER under a variety of business constraints.
OSI’s Integra DERMS™ technology enables functionality such as the modeling of DERs, netting and aggregation, visualization, control, forecasting, scheduling and dispatching, data archiving and analysis, study mode, and simulation.
“OSI’s monarch™ platform is the ideal solution for supporting both DERMS and ADMS applications due to its best-in-class ability to model and manage a significant number of grid devices in real time while maintaining cyber-secure communication and control,” said Bahman Hoveida, president and CEO of OSI. “We look forward to working with such a pioneering and progressive partner as SMUD to address their front-line DER management challenges using our Integra DERMS technology.”
“SMUD’s vision is to empower its customers with solutions and options that increase energy efficiency, protect the environment, reduce global warming, and lower the cost to serve our region,” said Paul Lau, chief grid strategy & operations officer at SMUD. “Our partnership with OSI will enable us to manage the existing DER on the grid while utilizing a scalable and flexible technology that will grow with us as we expand our capabilities and customer programs, which is key to SMUD’s grid modernization strategy for a decarbonized, decentralized and digitalized energy future.”
The nation’s sixth-largest community-owned electric service provider, SMUD (www.smud.org) has been providing low-cost, reliable electricity for nearly 70 years to Sacramento County and small adjoining portions of Placer and Yolo Counties. SMUD is a recognized industry leader and award-winner for its innovative energy-efficiency programs, renewable power technologies, and sustainable solutions for a healthier environment. SMUD maintains a power mix with approximately 50 percent non-carbon-emitting resources.
Open Systems International (www.osii.com)—headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota—provides open, state-of-the-art and high-performance automation solutions to utilities worldwide. OSI’s solutions empower its users to meet their operational challenges, day-in and day-out, with unsurpassed reliability and a minimal cost of technology ownership and maintenance.
