2027 Event Agenda

As distributed energy resources (DERs) continue to scale, stakeholders across the ecosystem—including utilities, aggregators, VPP providers, DER vendors, and gateway manufacturers—face growing challenges integrating multi-vendor systems into reliable, coordinated grid operations. While standards such as IEEE 1547-2018 establish a foundation for interoperability, real-world implementation remains fragmented. Inconsistencies in interpretation, certification, communication protocols, and device configurations make solutions difficult to deploy, validate, and scale in practice.

To better understand this gap, EPRI convened a first-of-its-kind, hands-on, multi-vendor interoperability event focused on determining whether systems can actually work together . The results reveal that interoperability is achievable today—but not yet consistent or deployment-ready without significant integration effort.

Participants represented both upstream managing systems (e.g., DERMS, gateways) and downstream DER devices, enabling realistic, multi-vendor interoperability testing aligned with real-world deployment scenarios.

Leading companies, with commitment to achieving and improving DER interoperability, participated in the event, including: ASE-a Kalkitech company, DER Security Corp, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Enetrics, EPRI, FPL (Florida Power & Light), Fronius, Keysight Technologies, Koll’s Consulting, National Grid, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, SEL (Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories), SolarEdge, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, and WAGO.

Drawing on insights from this hands-on testing effort, the panel brings together perspectives across the DER ecosystem—including utility, device manufacturer, gateway/integration platform, and testing and standards—to examine where and why interoperability breaks in practice and how to avoid running into the issues in your own projects.

Grounded in interoperability testing and field experience, panelists will discuss common patterns observed across deployments, including:

• Where variability emerges at the device level despite compliance
• How integration layers must absorb and manage mismatches across systems
• Limitations in current testing and validation approaches
• Misalignment between utility expectations, standards, and implementations

Connection of Topic to Panelists

Matt Wallace (PPL Utilities) – Matt brings the utility perspective, leveraging insights from PPL’s demonstrations to show how interoperability issues directly translate into real operational challenges for utility pilots and deployments.

Ben Ealey (EPRI) – Providing a system-level view, Ben brings insights from hands-on interoperability testing and industry engagement, highlighting recurring patterns observed across deployments and the gap between standards, implementation, and operational performance.

Chris Dunlap (WAGO) – Representing the integration layer, Chris brings insight into how gateways must absorb variability across devices and systems, bridging protocols and implementations to enable coordinated operation in real-world deployments.

Robby Simpson (Enetrics) – Representing the testing and standards perspective, Robby brings experience at the intersection of specification and validation, helping to highlight where standards intent diverges from real-world implementation and why “passing a test” does not always result in interoperable systems.

Ibti Kharchouf (EPRI) – Offering a practitioner’s perspective, Ibti contributes direct experience from test execution and system integration, illustrating how interoperability challenges manifest during hands-on testing and where coordination across systems breaks down in practice.