2026 Event Schedule

ComEd’s Voltage Management Demonstration (VMD) project is a targeted initiative focused on enhancing grid performance under contingency conditions in areas with high DER penetration. It leverages the Aspentech Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) to implement advanced control strategies on DERs using the MESA standard, including volt-var, volt-watt, and active power curtailment, to mitigate voltage violations and fluctuations that arise during abnormal grid states. By coordinating DER assets like solar photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage systems, the project enables dynamic voltage support that can also be leveraged during market frequency regulation events. The primary goals are to increase DER hosting capacity, reduce the need for infrastructure upgrades, and improve grid resilience without impacting normal operations. This presentation will give an overview of this recently commissioned project and lessons learned with MESA standard implementation with 3rd party owned DERs and the performance improvement of using the DERMS logic to automatically adjust inverter operating modes given real-time system conditions.