Platform
Grid-Edge DERMS
Customer Engagement
Demand Forecasting
BYOD
Customer Engagement
Demand Response
EV Charging
Incentive Processing
Program Design
Program Management Automation
Flexible Dispatch
Virtual Power Plants
API Integrations
Between electrification efforts, computationally intensive AI processes, and the growth of manufacturing facilities, energy demands are increasing rapidly after a period of relative stability. Building new generation capacity is prohibitively expensive, and demand is rapidly outpacing traditional methods. Virtual power plants are an efficient, cost-effective non-wires alternative that leverages behind-the-meter distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar, battery energy storage systems (BESS), electric vehicles (EVs) and EVSE chargers, and smart home devices like thermostats or water heaters.
Keeping member bills and operational costs down is a priority for electric cooperatives, especially with increased and energy-hungry AI and data center developments, supply chain and tariff challenges, and climate change magnifying traditional weather patterns and natural disasters. With these challenges pressing, establishing a virtual power plant can be daunting, unless it integrates seamlessly into the everyday workflow of utility operations. Fortunately, the NISC integration with Virtual Peaker does precisely that.
How Integrations Help Utilities
Integrations between virtual power plants and Grid-Edge distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) software and other systems are the foundation of program management actions ranging from enrollment management to incentive processing. These integrations interact with numerous other systems, some of which are also used by the program manager, like CIS and CRMs, and some of which are external, like DERs and rate databases.
Integrations with external systems streamline the program managers’ operations by supporting actions that would otherwise be prohibitively complex. For example, without a direct link to a device partner to enroll devices, there would be no pool of DERs available to provide load for the program to shift.
When the program manager is moving between different systems, such as reviewing data in a CIS or CRM to determine the eligibility of an enrollment application or reviewing enrollments in VPP software to send incentives through a separate billing system, integrations between these systems simplify and automate tedious manual processes. The NISC-VP integration links actions in the NISC system to the Virtual Peaker platform and vice versa, keeping the virtual power plant in sync with the rest of the utility’s operations.
What is the NISC Integration?
The NISC-VP integration supports program managers in taking actions where it is most logical to do so: enrollments and incentives are managed in the NISC Enterprise System alongside other information about the device owners’ accounts, and events are called within the Virtual Peaker platform alongside forecasting tools and program reports.
In addition to supporting program managers with familiar context, the integration supports device owners in the same way, allowing device owners to enroll through NISC’s SmartHub and pre-populate information such as their name and account number before using Virtual Peaker’s device integrations to connect a device in a single step. Then, program managers review and approve (or deny) enrollment applications right in iVUE Connect, alongside other information that they use to determine program eligibility.
When a load shift event is scheduled in the Virtual Peaker platform, event notifications are sent through the NISC system, arriving to device owners via the same channels they use to receive other communications from their provider. After the event is complete, measurement and verification (M&V) is easy: information about the event becomes visible in NISC’s Meter Data Management solution and in SmartHub, overlaid on meter data so that the program manager can evaluate the event. The event data is also visible in the Virtual Peaker platform reports and dashboards, alongside AMI data that the NISC system shares with the Virtual Peaker platform.
Likewise, program managers can use the power of Virtual Peaker’s incentive processing to compute incentive values that they can apply to device owners as bill credits through NISC enterprise. These incentives appear to device owners using the same billing system they’re familiar with, and if the device owner contacts the utility with any questions about their incentives, the data they need is visible and traceable right in the NISC system.
Who Uses the NISC Integration
The NISC-VP integration is available to NISC Members and Virtual Peaker customers, from coops to IOUs and munis. The integration is primarily used by program managers, who use it to process enrollment applications, send event notifications, and apply incentives, and by team members who analyze demand flexibility event data.
The NISC-VP integration is part of Virtual Peaker’s integration ecosystem. It relies on Virtual Peaker’s device partner integrations to connect devices and schedule events; while it is otherwise capable on its own, the integration reaches its full potential when it is used with the full suite of integrations the Virtual Peaker platform offers.
When the NISC-VP integration is combined with operations integrations with systems such as SCADA, ADMS, and Grid DERMS, events can be called by grid operators, and the NISC-VP integration notifies device owners and provides M&V data in the same way as if the events had been called directly from the Virtual Peaker platform. Likewise, event scheduling is compatible with forecasts driven by weather integrations, and data about these events is available to Virtual Peaker’s analytics integrations, regardless of the source of the event.
Why the NISC Integration Matters
One of the goals of virtual power plant programs is to shift load to off-peak hours and mitigate high energy costs, which requires a large pool of DERs that provide capacity for shifting load. In our experience, the easier the enrollment process is, the higher the rates of enrollment in a program. The NISC SmartHub-based enrollment flow that pre-fills member data is a key step in increasing program enrollments and, therefore, the effective capacity of the virtual power plant. After enrollment, device owners will receive incentives rapidly and reliably, which motivates some device owners to remain in the program.
– Katarina Struckmann, API Product Manager, Virtual Peaker
The links between the NISC and Virtual Peaker systems provide a seamless experience for program managers that enables them to get the most out of their investments in both systems.
Virtual Power Plants & the NISC Integration Conclusion
As energy demand accelerates due to electrification and the adoption of computationally-intensive workloads, including AI tools, virtual power plants provide a fast, affordable, and efficient method to shift and reduce load. However, a VPP is only as capable as its pool of DERs. The NISC-VP integration offers a smooth enrollment flow that begins in the same system device owners already use to interact with their provider, and ends in the same system program managers use to interact with other account data, removing key barriers to adoption. In a world that places so many demands on our time, why context-switch when an integration can put your entire workflow in one place?
Want more tips on how to run the best demand flexibility programs out there? We’ve got you covered!
