Smart grid technology is being installed around the world as government mandates urge energy providers to adopt this platform to improve efficiency and customer service. The Electric Power Board (EPB) Chattanooga Smart Grid Project is being implemented in a 600-square-mile area serving more than 169,000 residents in greater Chattanooga and areas of North Georgia.

Established in 1935 as a not-for-profit agency of the City of Chattanooga, the Electric Power Board was given POWER magazine's 2013 Smart Grid Award. POWER gave the award to EPB because the utility, customers, and community benefited from the timing, implementation, and technology the company used, which in turn allowed it to gain new revenue streams.

This was achieved in part by using technology from OATI's webDistribute, which gave EPB the ability to integrate Demand Response (DR) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) capabilities with its power system. The OATI solution improved the economics, reliability, and environmental compliance to industry standards and stringent NERC (News - Alert) CIP guidelines of EPB.

"We are excited to be a part of this innovative Smart Grid implementation that is bringing EPB so much success. We look forward to our continued collaboration with EPB, as we strive to achieve new milestones in Smart Grid technology," said Dr. Sasan Mokhtari, Ph.D., CEO and president of OATI.

The webDistribute application monitors, controls, schedules, and manages DR and DER with advanced functionality to improve supply economic and reliability by integrating demand-side capabilities into market operations, transmission, and distribution.

It also lets utilities:

• Forecast available capability and schedule DR and DER in support system and market operations
• Allow participation of DR and DER in energy, capacity, and various ancillary services markets
• Provide for various aggregation methods, including by distribution grid location, program type, resource capability, and others
• Monitor distribution grid conditions affected by DR/DER, including equipment loading constraints, voltage max/min constraints per phase, and phase imbalances. Use distributed generation for satisfying voltage constraints
• Integrate with existing utility systems and operations, including AMI, MDMS, CIS, SCADA, DMS, GIS, OMS, and others as well as adhering to NERC CIP, NISTIR 7628, and NIST SP 800-53 security standards

The solution OATI provides the energy market is relied upon by more than 1,200 customers in North America. The company deploys complex, large and mission-critical applications that provide utilities with scalability, performance, and the security to support Smart Grid functionality with a comprehensive integration for end-to-end functionality. OATI hosts all of the data in-house with zero outsourcing at its data center in Minneapolis by processing more than 80 TB of data daily with system availability of 99.99 percent.