The North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and Minnesota-based microgrid specialist OATI are expanding their partnership to implement a real-time smart grid platform. The project will upgrade NCEMC’s distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) to include real-time orchestration and control.

The system is designed to manage a network of resources including solar, battery storage, and demand response programmes across 26 locally owned distribution cooperatives. The enhancement allows for grid management based on current system conditions rather than solely on planning and forecasts.

The NCEMC-OATI platform will allow real-time orchestration of distributed energy resources (DERs), integration with GridMind microgrid controls for islandable sites, and unified management of solar, storage, and demand-side assets. It will also enable cloud-based grid solutions with integrated energy-native generative AI.

Sasan Mokhtari, President and CEO of OATI, said the project brings industry-defining control capabilities to NCEMC’s existing infrastructure. OATI, which launched its first DERMS platform in 2009, currently provides technology to more than 225 utilities globally.

NCEMC and its member cooperatives serve rural North Carolina, utilising microgrids and DERs to improve grid resilience. The partnership aims to eliminate operational silos by connecting utility control rooms directly to energy markets and distributed assets.