Over 200 million distributed energy resources (DERs) are on track to come online globally by 2030. To keep up with this dynamically evolving grid topology, a majority of North American utilities have initiatives that aim to upgrade or deploy third-party developed advanced operational and informational systems — mainly through the deployment of ADMS (advanced distribution management system) and DERMS (distributed energy resource management system) solutions.

The definitions of these two systems, however, remain amorphous, resulting in the pressing need for some clarity around the line of demarcation between them. It is equally critical, however, that utilities also understand the synergies between these two systems. With this clarity, utilities can then identify the optimal configuration between the ADMS and the DERMS to achieve evolving mission-critical objectives in the network operator’s control room.