In this session, Drs. Jorge Elizondo and Trudie Wang will guide industry stakeholders through the lessons learned on how to intelligently integrate, aggregate, and interconnect DER systems, as well as how to access and maximize direct economic benefits across value streams in a more dynamic and transactive grid. They will take the audience through a discussion of the present and future states of DER and microgrid grid interconnection – detailing the current obstructions to the deployment of these systems at the distribution level from multiple stakeholder perspectives – as well as prospective technology and policy solutions, such as innovations in decentralized DER control architectures like the ones embedded in the Heila EDGE platform.

The session will also feature insights and lessons on how stakeholders across the energy industry can access and respond to new value streams, especially in a more transactive, rapidly evolving market and technology landscape – including knowledge on how to most effectively choose, size, and operate DERs and microgrids to achieve energy cost savings and resilience while progressing toward ESG and sustainability goals. The session will conclude with a discussion on a vision for a paradigm shift in which DERs and microgrids are orchestrated to form the pillars of a clean, resilient, and equitable grid, where the full potential of cooperatively intelligent and distributed agents are unlocked for both end-users and larger system-wide goals.