Rhode Island Makes Solar Work for the Distribution System

Renewable Energy World: How does a utility cope with peak loads that are stressing its distribution system? It constructs a new substation feeder. Or does it?

In 2014, as state legislators were considering a four-fold expansion of the state’s distributed generation program, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (OER) and National Grid (the state’s major investor-owned utility) were busily investigating how distributed renewable energy could benefit system reliability. They identified the Rhode Island communities of Tiverton and Little Compton as places to test the proposition that distributed, solar PV generation could defer or potentially eliminate grid upgrades and enhance reliability.

Read article