Today, Landis+Gyr revealed an Energy and Capacity Optimization System (ECOS) as part of a long-term strategy to address energy distribution challenges in a rapidly changing environment for North American utilities.
The company made the announcement at its annual customer conference, Exchange, held in Phoenix, AZ. Addressing the more than 600 utility professionals in attendance, John Radgowski, Vice President of Solutions Product Management at Landis+Gyr, described ECOS as a platform that brings together demand response, distributed energy resource and voltage management technologies in a coordinated approach for balancing load and bringing new distributed resources online in the future.
"Utilities are facing flat demand growth, increasing competitive pressures and grid management issues with the rise in distributed resources. Meeting these challenges requires the ability to apply the most effective approach to each problem," Radgowski said. "In many cases, the technology is already available or deployed and what's needed is a way to plan, integrate and leverage those assets to maintain reliable and efficient service.
"Building on the core capability of aggregating dispatchable load management, distributed generation management and voltage management for energy and capacity optimization, ECOS also recognizes the untapped potential of consumer-side load and distributed generation. Stronger customer partnerships will be a key factor for both grid management and customer retention in the future," he said.
Landis+Gyr's history of delivering high-performance networks and grid sensing technologies has been complemented by the integration of advanced load management, battery energy storage and grid analytics tools. The company's ECOS strategy extends this platform for utilities by combining communication, control and data management technologies into a flexible solution to monitor and manage the distribution network down to the circuit level.
ECOS starts with planning tools to help utilities identify and prioritize problem areas and determine the best solution. It then leverages data from sensors, and control of distribution equipment to perform operations such as voltage optimization, consumer load management and solar inverter control. ECOS's modular design allows tailored applications for each utility customer with the ability to expand future functionality as needs evolve.
Landis+Gyr's Gridstream AMI, Distribution Intelligence and Customer Intelligence solutions are successfully deployed at hundreds of utilities worldwide and provide the foundation for energy and capacity optimization. The company's annual Exchange conference brings together utility customers and partners for three days of educational sessions and training provided by industry and technology experts. The primary focus of the event is exploring the benefits of grid modernization technology and planning for a new energy future.
