Navigant Research reports that the market for distributed energy resources (DER) monitoring and control technologies will total $120.3 billion from this year to 2024.
The market for control and marketing equipment and services is growing due to the proliferation of DER overall. The challenge, according to Navigant, is that DER the growth is occurring at different points in the distribution grid, with an emphasis at the edge. This evolution must be proactively managed in order for the market to reach its potential. The report suggests that grid intelligence and automation will help spur the market for clean energy resources and services.
The growth is occurring at different rates worldwide because of differences in grid infrastructures, regulatory goals and technology access. To date, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific have experienced the most growth.
Managing DERs is a huge issue. At Utility Products, Bradley Williams discusses DER data issues from the technical perspective. The issue, Williams suggests, is that utilities traditionally used supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. These typically terminate at or near the substation. This is an issue, he suggests, because it is vital in a DER environment to have access to data all the way to the consumer.
