Distributed Energy Resources Challenges for Utilities

This paper provides an overview of the challenges that utilities will be facing during and after the interconnection of distributed energy resources (DER), especially at high penetration levels when utility distribution systems may be operating outside of the existing design parameters. First, California has adopted smart inverter/converter standards to mitigate potential issues caused by DER but there will be other remaining issues that utilities will have to face. This paper will provide various potential impacts that high DER penetration will bring to the system whether or not they have advanced features. Additionally, it will provide recommendations for system impact studies needed to assess DER impacts on distribution systems. Finally, this paper will provide recommendations of advanced features to easy DER high penetration scenarios.