The Center for Renewables Integration is supporting the Natural Resources Defense Council, providing expert testimony in Pennsylvania on smart inverter deployment. PPL Electric Utilities filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission in 2019, requesting authorization to require all new DERs equipped with inverters to install communications equipment linked to PPL’s distributed energy resource management system (DERMS). PPL’s request would also authorize the utility to control the inverters remotely at its discretion. CRI witness educates the Commission on risks of that approach and recommends establishing a statewide stakeholder process to determine new smart inverter standards, in line with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ recent resolution, and advocates taking maximum advantage of IEEE-1547-2018 compliant inverters’ autonomous capabilities. Link to the NARUC resolution here, and to CRI’s white paper “It’s Time for States to Get Smart About Smart Inverters” here.
