Cooperatives Connect at TechAdvantage 2017

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Cooperatives Connect at TechAdvantage 2017

TechAdvantage’s annual conference and exhibition is the place for cooperative utilities to network and experience the latest tools, technologies, and services that will help to increase their co-op’s efficiency. This year, San Diego was host to over 300 exhibitors, 8,400 attendees, and virtually every member of each cooperative utilities’ leadership team who were looking for great content—and maybe some California sun.

Unfortunately, many of us that attended this year found ourselves thinking of the 1972 song from Albert Hammond “It Never Rains in Southern California” when he sings…

Seems it never rains in southern California
Seems I’ve often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California, but girl, don’t they warn ya?
It pours, man, it pours


After the first few days of the conference, I can attest that it does indeed rain in Southern California, though we were lucky enough to be treated to normal California weather for the last few days of the show.

Weather aside, TechAdvantage is a unique trade show because it showcases everything used by a cooperative utility. Services on display included all the emerging applications like microgrids, Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS), Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and many others. In addition, attendees were treated to consulting services, tools, wooden pole treatments, sub-station construction, and much more. Who doesn’t want to look at the latest and greatest trucks on the market? Everything a cooperative would ever need was on hand.

OATI displayed our microgrid optimization software, GridMindTM, as well as CVRDemand Response Management System (DRMS), and DERMS. OATI’s Walter Kaslow also participated in two technology educational sessions—the first, on Tuesday, with Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC)—explained how MVEC achieved great Demand Response (DR) results with OATI solutions, and the second, on Wednesday, with Wake Electric Membership Corp., focused on utilizing CVR to decrease demand charges incurred during peak events each month.

After the success of this year’s conference, OATI is excited to connect with even more customers at TechAdvantage 2018 in Nashville, TN.

About the Author:

Steve Sendele is an OATI Sales Executive working on the Smart Grid team. Mr. Sendele has over 20 years of wireless data experience, with the majority of his experience being focused on selling Smart Grid solutions to utilities.