Around the globe, distributed energy resources (DERs) – solar panels, batteries, electric vehicle chargers, and other behind-the-meter assets – are growing far faster than the tools and data systems designed to manage them can keep pace. Yet, as these resources multiply, utilities see less of them.
Only a small fraction of DERs currently participate in utility-run programs, as a user of Rhythmos’s data analytics shares:
“Across the EVs charging on our distribution system, I lack visibility over 75% of them. I don’t know where they are or their charging behaviour. The other 25%, I know they exist as they signed up for a rebate for a charger or a special EV rate, for example. But I still don’t know locationally where they are or how they are charging.”
– Senior Distribution Planning Engineer – Rhythmos US utility customer
That shows how distribution companies have visibility into just a sliver of the resources actively shaping their networks.
These same utilities have inherited system responsibilities their planning and operational tools weren’t meant to handle. The traditional model of centralized generation and one-way power flows has given way to something far more opaque.
This visibility gap has become the defining infrastructure challenge of the next decade. Without addressing it, utilities will struggle to plan and operate reliably, and capture the value hidden in their networks.
What “visibility” means and why traditional definitions fall short
When utility engineers hear “visibility,” they often think of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems.
These are important components, but this is data about what’s there. That’s not the same as understanding what it’s doing.
True visibility requires behavioral understanding of DERs. This includes insight into why they’re acting as they are, how they’re responding to signals, and what impact those actions have on the distribution system.
This is fundamentally different from simply knowing a solar array exists on a feeder.
The challenge is made more complex because utilities must understand DERs they don’t own and can’t control. A rooftop solar installation, a home battery, an EV charger: they’re all customer – not utility – assets. But their collective behavior now shapes local grid conditions.
When thousands of them charge simultaneously, or discharge in response to a price signal, or trip during a voltage event, the cumulative effect ripples across the network.
Add to this the various signals driving DER behavior, such as wholesale market prices, device charging patterns, weather, customer preferences, behind-the-meter control logic, etc. You can begin to grasp why traditional utility visibility tools are no longer adequate. The system has become too distributed and too opaque.
The cost of invisibility
Planning uncertainty
Without visibility, utilities struggle to answer basic questions: How big should my next feeder upgrade be? When should I build it? What’s the risk that I’ll invest billions in infrastructure only to have it become obsolete as DER adoption patterns shift?
This uncertainty translates into either under-investment (creating congestion and reliability issues) or over-investment (stranding capital).
Either way, utilities find themselves unable to defend their investment decisions to regulators and stakeholders with confidence. Planning becomes a guessing game, and the stakes – ratepayer costs – are too high for guesses.
Operational uncertainty
Invisible DERs create invisible challenges. When utilities can’t proactively see what’s happening on their feeders, they can’t anticipate problems or respond proactively. Instead, they react to issues after they emerge. Often, that means reacting conservatively, erring on the side of caution.
This caution manifests in longer interconnection queues, more restrictive approval processes, and higher barriers to new DER deployment. The cost there is that it slows the transition utilities and society need, and it pushes deployment risk and costs onto customers, hindering the constant drive for affordability.
The lack of visibility creates a vicious cycle where uncertainty breeds caution which causes delays. Delay undermines the grid modernization that visibility could enable.
Lost value
The final cost is perhaps the most substantial, yet it’s the hardest to quantify.
Every DER on the grid represents latent flexibility i.e. the potential to shift consumption, inject power, or provide stability services. But that flexibility remains locked away because utilities lack the insight to identify it, much less coordinate it.
Without visibility into where flexibility exists, utilities cannot coordinate DERs effectively. They cannot meet “least-cost” operational expectations. They cannot optimize the use of their own assets. And they certainly cannot tap into the value distributed resources could unlock for the grid, themselves, and customers.
Why visibility alone isn’t enough
So, visibility shows what’s happening. It tells you that a solar array is injecting 10 kW, that a battery is charging, that voltage is rising on a particular feeder. This is important information but lacks action on its own.
Assessing DER behavior shows how those assets are impacting the distribution system. This creates dynamic understanding: How does this battery’s charging profile contribute to peak demand on this feeder? What’s the cumulative impact of ten thousand behind-the-meter resources on this circuit’s stability?
Market and operational signals explain why these behaviours are occurring. A battery discharges when a price signal incentivises it, rarely randomly. An EV charges according to a user’s preferences and electricity costs. Understanding these drivers is crucial to predicting and managing outcomes.
But visibility and behavioral understanding still leave utilities reactive. They can see problems after they emerge, but not to prevent them. So, orchestration becomes essential.
Orchestration links visibility, behavior assessment, and market signals so utilities can actively decide how to respond to system conditions. With orchestration, visibility becomes actionable.
Building the foundation for the next era of distribution operations with DER detection
Reducing today’s blind spots therefore requires an active approach:
- Start with a data audit of behind-the-meter assets. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Begin by understanding the scale and composition of DERs on your system – not just those enrolled in your programs, but all of them. This requires collaboration with customers, third-party aggregators, and data providers. It’s foundational work, and it often reveals surprises about what’s actually connected to your network.
- Build a feeder-level visibility baseline. Not all feeders are created equal. Some have concentrated DER adoption; others have minimal penetration. Map visibility across your distribution system and identify the feeders where DER impact is highest and the visibility gap is widest.
- Determine how DERs are impacting your distribution system assets. Move beyond “we have solar on this feeder” to understanding actual impacts. Which feeders are experiencing strain from DER behaviour? Where are bottlenecks emerging? Which areas of your system have limited headroom for additional resources? This analysis should be led by operations and planning teams and informed by field data.
- Engage planning, operations, and regulatory teams early. Visibility is an engineering and a business problem. Your planning team needs to understand the implications for capital planning. Operations needs to understand the constraints and opportunities visibility reveals. The regulatory team needs to understand the compliance and cost-recovery implications. Breaking down siloed operations across teams can help build a coherent business case across the organization
- Begin exploring where flexibility already exists in the system. As you build visibility, start identifying pockets of unused capability: feeders with headroom, times with available capacity, customers whose DERs could provide valuable services. This exploratory work will inform your orchestration strategy and help you build the business case for coordination infrastructure.
- Develop a roadmap for coordination between network needs and market signals. Don’t try to build a complete end-to-end orchestration platform in year one. Instead, develop a roadmap that connects your growing visibility picture with market signals and begins to align incentives. Where can you start with small pilots? Which signals matter most on which feeders? How will you measure success?
Improving visibility through detecting DERs and their impact is ultimately about improving confidence, whether in forecasts, investment decisions, operational responses, or the long-term trajectory of the grid. With clearer visibility, utilities can make more precise planning choices based on where flexibility already exists to help manage constraints proactively.
