The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has launched a Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Interoperability Lab and Working Group to help utilities, technology providers and researchers address challenges associated with integrating DERs across different technologies and management systems.

The lab is located at EPRI's facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, and is designed to help stakeholders evaluate, diagnose and resolve DER integration issues.

DERs, including rooftop solar, battery storage and electric vehicles, are increasingly being deployed close to where electricity is consumed. However, equipment and software from multiple vendors can create integration challenges that limit grid efficiency and utilization.

While standards such as IEEE 1547-2018 provide a foundation for DER integration, inconsistent implementations can continue to create barriers to deployment, EPRI said.

"The DER Interoperability Lab and Working Group reflect EPRI's broader approach to solving complex industry challenges through collaboration, independent testing, and shared learning," said Durgesh Manjure, vice president of integrated grid and energy systems at EPRI. "By bringing together the entire DER ecosystem, EPRI is helping stakeholders accelerate reliable integration of DERs while supporting a more flexible and resilient grid."

EPRI recently hosted what it described as an industry-first DER Plug-Fest at its Knoxville lab. The hands-on interoperability event brought together nearly two dozen companies to test interactions among devices, gateways, distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) platforms and communications systems.

Plug-Fest focused on whether standards-based systems could work together in practice rather than solely evaluating theoretical compliance. The event demonstrated progress toward DER interoperability by validating end-to-end control across multi-vendor systems while highlighting the need for greater consistency in monitoring, control, security and data exchange.

"Our default position with DER has always been that with configuration flexibility and open-source plugins, we can connect to anything, the downside is that this often involves costly discovery and learning during commissioning," said Philip Courth, chief technology officer of Ecosuite and a working group member who participated in Plug-Fest. "EPRI's efforts provide hope that with further iteration, the industry will achieve a truly plug-and-play environment."

EPRI said the Plug-Fest also demonstrated the need for continued collaborative testing to improve consistency, repeatability and scalability across the industry.

EPRI's network of laboratories provides independent testing, validation and demonstration capabilities to evaluate emerging technologies and address industry challenges.