As the grid edge landscape continues to evolve with the introduction of more consumer-sided tech like electric vehicles and residential solar, utilities are worried about a lack of visibility and control.
A lot has changed since utilities’ sole concern was providing power and billing customers, says Stefan Zschiegner, Itron’s Vice President of product management. Itron’s customers, the utilities, have to involve “every single department in the utility” to engage with the grid edge, he said.
At the recent Itron Inspire event in San Antonio, Texas, Zschiegner sat down with Clarion Events Vice President of Transmission and Distribution Stephanie Kolodziej to discuss the grid edge, electric vehicles, residential solar, and more.
Models from the 1960s don’t work anymore, Zschiegner said, and utilities have started to think about how to effectively engage with and become a trusted partner of the consumer.
“So that’s exciting, because that’s a completely different thinking than in the past where it was really about ‘how do I work and deliver a bill to the customer in return for sharing and delivering power,'” he said. “And that is a transformation. That is just a huge challenge for the utility.”
One solution Itron provides to create more visibility into the grid edge for its utility customers is its “Distributed Intelligence,” meant to provide insight into power quality, voltage monitoring, high impedance detection, transformer load management, meter bypass detection, EV and solar (PV) awareness, and more. The platform utilizes smart endpoints, such as smart meters, devices, or in-home sensors, with peer-to-peer connectivity.
This platform, Zschiegner said, talks “to the electric vehicle charging station, to the solar inverter, to the thermostat – all of that in a coordinated fashion, on behalf of the central control system.”
Itron is looking at additional solutions for the grid edge, including “control opportunities to really control autonomously the electric vehicle charging and make sure it doesn’t overload the panel or it doesn’t overload the transformer,” Zschiegner said, avoiding the “worst-case” scenario of having to tell a customer they cannot charge their electric vehicle.
“We are helping the utility in avoiding these kinds of conflicts,” Zschiegner said. “It helps […] make the utility aware where the electric vehicles are in a way that allows them to have a much more positive dialogue and engagement with the consumer.”
