DTECH Midwest
- July 14 - 16, 2025
- Minneapolis, MN
Microgrid Tour
Sign up for a tour of the OATI Microgrid Technology Center–featuring the OATI GridMind® Microgrid Controller, which operates this multi-resource environment.
Opening Remarks: Leveraging the Power of AI for Grid Operations
- July 15, 2025
- 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM
For all the blustering about how artificial intelligence will transform the energy industry, most tools are light on details, limited in impact, and are unlikely to succeed. Crafting a sound vision for AI in energy can be allusive, especially in the high-stakes game of running a power grid. Despite the eagerness to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize the energy industry and power grid operations, most existing tools in the market lack specifics and have limited impact. Creating an effective vision for AI in the power grid operations is challenging. In these opening remarks, the California ISO will share its experience utilizing AI to transform workflows and operations’ processes with lessons learned that may be applicable to the Midwest and beyond.
Hear from CAISO Executive Director of Power Systems Technology Operations Hani Alarian on OATI Genie, OATI’s pilot with CAISO for the Energy Industry’s first agentic and generative AI grid operator assistant.
Hani Alarian
Director of Power Systems Technology Operations – CAISO
Distributed Energy Resource Journey at North Carolina Electric Cooperatives
- July 15, 2025
- 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives has embarked upon an extensive initiative to leverage DERs for enhanced grid reliability, resilience, and economics; including five sites structured as microgrids. The proliferation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) can pose challenges for reliable grid operation due to their voltage impacts, reverse power flows, and local phase imbalances, to name a few. However, if leveraged properly, by proper design and implementation of DER aggregations, they can offer improved grid reliability, resilience, and economics. This presentation will demonstrate how this is achieved by North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. Aggregation of DERs can be formed with a view to their technical and grid connectivity characteristics and operated collectively following a combination of control signals and temporal and geographical value signals. Several examples of field implementation will be covered including special cases where the DERs are spread through the distribution grid and cases where they are located within microgrid footprints with one or more points of common coupling with the distribution grid.
Farrokh Rahimi
Executive Vice President – OATI
John Lemire
Vice President of Grid Operations and Planning – NCEMC
Resilient Minneapolis Project – North Minneapolis Microgrid-Community Resiliency HUB
- July 16, 2025
- 9:45 AM - 10:30 AM
Come learn how MicroGrid controls support rooftop solar, battery storage and backup generation for a variety of off-takes and site conditions. Renewable Energy Partners (REP), a minority-owned business developer of solar and other clean energy projects, is leading this development of 1,450 kilowatts of solar and 2,000 kWs of storage on four clustered public school buildings. It will be the community’s first MicroGrid with the ability to island and support food services, vehicle and device recharging and other emergency services for area residents. During normal operations, it will lower energy costs to the schools and be controlled to help manage demand on the grid during peak periods. REP also sponsors skills training for careers in new green technologies, including courses in development on Microgrids and battery storage.
Matthew Kiesow
Sr. Director IoT Solutions – OATI
Michael Krause
Renewable Energy Partners (REP)
Get in touch
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