Get distributed energy resources under control

You’re running the process, and you’ll be accountable for the recommendation. You need vendor criteria that go beyond the demo: implementation timelines, integration requirements and what “production-ready” really means. Assemble evidence you can put directly into an RFP, and a real deployment you can point to.

Technical depth

• Ask for a comparable deployment: its scope, its programs and the time from contract to the first event.
• Write integration requirements as interfaces: CIS, MDM, ADMS, GIS and AMI on the enterprise side; IEEE 2030.5, DNP3, Modbus and ICCP to the field and other control centers.
• Define production-ready: events called, measured and settled in production, not in a pilot.
• Check the operating model: program rules you configure yourself, a self-service portal for aggregators and customers, and subsidiaries or partners run in their own environments on one platform.

A platform is only as good as its fit with the systems already on your desk. Focus on how the DERMS connects to your EMS and ADMS, whether it gives operators one view instead of another silo, and whether the workflows hold up under real-time pressure. Will your control room adopt it, or work around it?

Technical depth

• One map: behind-the-meter and front-of-meter resources on a geospatial view that flags overloads and voltage issues.
• Look-ahead: load forecasts up to seven days out, showing where VPP capability will be needed.
• Decision support: a live load curve where adding or removing programs shows the peak respond, with the calls each program has left.
• Event execution: thousands of customers and aggregators notified in minutes, performance watched live, more programs called if the response falls short.

A DERMS that can’t take part in your ISO or RTO’s market products isn’t useful to you, however polished the demo. Which market constructs does it support, how does it handle telemetry and settlement, and can it scale aggregations without breaking compliance?

Technical depth

• Market programs configured, not custom-built: AEP’s events are created automatically when PJM calls them.
• Prices in: real-time and day-ahead prices and market load forecasts, to see where the value is.
• Proof out: baselines event by event, meter data validated, non-performance tracked and settlements completed.
• Rules change: a configurable baseline and settlement engine that adapts when a tariff or market rule does.

Your lens is risk and return. Is the vendor proven at utilities like yours? Does the financial model hold up? Are there reference deployments you can trust? You want a real, comparable deployment and the substance behind the claims, enough to sponsor a decision with confidence.

Technical depth

• Track record: OATI built the first DERMS in 2009; more than 250 utilities run their DERMS on OATI, with 12 GW under management.
• Independent view: OATI was named a Leader in the Verdantix Green Quadrant for DERMS (2025).
• References by type: investor-owned utilities such as AEP and Con Edison, and G&Ts with their member cooperatives such as NCEMC.
• Return: count peak reduction, avoided capacity and market revenue per program, and what one platform saves against several.