Understanding the DER Contract Rules Table

Contractual Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are assets owned and controlled by third-party independent power producers. These DERs cannot be operated, controlled, or dispatched by utilities without compliance with specific legal agreements established between the utility and the DER owner. The Network Management System must adhere to these contractual terms whenever it manages such DERs for various Grid DERMS and ADMS applications.

The DER Contract Rules table provides comprehensive details regarding these contractual arrangements. The table includes the following fields:

• Contract ID: A unique identifier for the contract rule.

• Contract Name: A descriptive, human-readable name assigned to the contract rule.

• Firmness: Indicates the firmness of the contract. A firm contract implies that the DER cannot be curtailed unless required to maintain network stability.

• Curtailment Type: Specifies the method used to determine the curtailment order of DERs (for example, LIFO, FIFO, etc.).

• Curtailment Index: Used in combination with Curtailment Type to define the priority order for curtailment of DERs.

• Time Unit: Specifies the time interval that governs the application of the usage frequency (for example, day, week, month, year).

• Usage Frequency: Defines the permitted number of usages or dispatches of the DER within the specified time unit.

• Effective Date: The start date from which the contract is active.

• Expiration Date: The end date after which the contract is no longer valid.

These contract rules specifically pertain to front-of-the-meter DERs, and their associations with DER assets can be viewed in the Grid DERMS Management table (see Grid DERMS Management Tool for details).