Featuring the Eversource Energy Customer Success Story
As the energy sector continues to undergo significant transformation, the U.S. Distributed Energy Resource (DER) market— solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and battery storage—is expected to nearly double in capacity from 2022 to 2027, with capital expenditure reaching US $68 billion per year. The global DER market, valued at $337.4 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $1.176 trillion by 2034, expanding at a CAGR of 13.30%.
Because DERs are typically small-scale, and often located near load centers (not large, concentrated power plants), that are interconnected to the electric grid, they are often challenged by grid integration complexities, ensuring grid stability and power quality, managing fluctuating energy sources, and addressing regulatory and economic hurdles. This can make engineering document management software (EDMS) crucial to helping power companies integrate systems of DERs. As power grids become more decentralized and incorporate various energy sources, the need for efficient document management becomes even more important to ensure smooth integration, efficient operations, ongoing maintenance, and regulatory compliance.
Here’s how Synergis Adept can help in the integration process:
- Centralized Documentation for DER Systems: Integrating DERs into the grid involves managing a complex set of designs, technical specifications, and blueprints. IDC data shows that knowledge workers spend about 5 hours per day, or roughly 30% of the workday, searching for information. It's possibly longer for contractors in power and utilities due to the nature of their work (e.g., remotely-based, access to specific project documents, regulations, etc.). When contractors don’t have timely access to data, documents, and change orders, it can lead to significant costs and inefficiencies in the form of delays and rework, increased risk of errors, cost overruns, and inefficient communication, resulting in cost and time overruns.
The focus is on the accuracy of drawings and the incorporation of field marks. This ensures our record drawings are accurate representations of what's in the field. It’s critical to reliability too. If the drawings don't represent what's in the field, it's a human error trap. When contractors see something in the field that doesn't match the drawing, that's a change order, and that costs us a lot of money. —Paul Melzen, Director, Substation Engineering, Eversource
Adept can store all these documents in a single, centralized system, ensuring that engineers, operators, maintenance and field teams have easy, quick access to the latest versions of designs and specifications for each DER.
Because DER projects involve frequent updates to designs and configurations, comprehensive version control ensures that only the most current documentation is used during the integration and implementation phases. This can reduce errors and safety-compliance incidents caused by outdated information.
Because DERs are remotely or decentrally-located, engineers, field teams, and project managers need remote access to current documents. Adept can provide access to key documents, allowing teams to work from any location.
Because DERs may have different applications (such as, CAD, ESRI, Office), Adept can automate data and workflows from design to deployment to field work. Its unified view of grid data improves overall efficiency and data integrity, while providing access to supporting documentation in one place. This enables quick decision-making and troubleshooting during the integration process.
It’s typical to see Adept reduce change orders by 25% or more, since it ensures that everyone is working from a single version of the truth. - Seamless collaboration across teams: Integrating DERs requires coordination across engineering, operations, legal, regulatory, and finance. By providing real-time access to documents, Adept enables teams to work on the same project simultaneously without delays or confusion. Real-time updates allow grid operators, DER manufacturers, contractors, and regulatory compliance teams, to collaborate effectively. This happens in three stages:
Adept allows for smoother coordination between those involved in design, planning, and approval. It stores relevant documents such as electrical schematics, architectural drawings, and interconnection agreements, ensuring that designs align with regulatory requirements and grid standards.
Project managers can use Adept to better track the progress in DER integration projects. By automating workflow processes and document approval chains, they can stay on top of tasks, deadlines, and document revisions, ensuring timely integration of DERs into the grid.
Once the DERs are integrated, ongoing field maintenance teams can use Adept to store, organize, and access maintenance manuals, inspection reports, and maintenance logs, making it easier for technicians to access this information and perform routine checks or repairs.
Ensuring reliable data from the field is transmitted back to the engineering team is crucial for maintaining project accuracy, efficiency, and safety. It can impact real-time decision making, reduce errors, timely response to issues, better resource allocation, and higher safety and compliance.
Adept has given us confidence in our data. We've integrated it into all of our design and engineering processes, along with station operations, construction, project management, protection and controls, and more. —Paul Melzen, Director, Substation Engineering 
Simplified compliance and regulatory reporting: Power companies must comply with various regulations when integrating complex systems like DERs, including safety standards, environmental impact reports, and local utility grid requirements. Storing all safety protocols, testing procedures, and incident reports, engineers can easily reference these documents to ensure that all safety measures are followed throughout the integration process.
10 years ago, when we first implemented Adept, we did it to save time and money. The industry has changed and the focus is now on liability, the regulations we must follow, and what we report out to FERC and NERC to minimize the potential risk of non-compliance. We have become more reliant on the accuracy of the drawings [within Adept] for compliance-related reporting. —Paul Melzen, Director, Substation Engineering
Adept can automate the process of tracking and organizing compliance-related documents, making it easier for power companies to meet regulatory demands and avoid costly penalties. Adept provides detailed audit trails for every document, ensuring that all changes, approvals, and updates are logged. As well, Adept automates reporting and publishing according to local specifications and ensuring that they comply with regulatory standards.
Engineering document management software like Adept is vital for helping power companies integrate Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) efficiently. By centralizing documentation, automating workflows, improving collaboration, and ensuring compliance, Adept supports smoother integration and management of decentralized energy systems. It can:
- Enhance project efficiency: saving 10-15% of labor costs searching for documents and workforce collaboration,
- Reduce risks: saving potential fines of thousands to millions of dollars from improved compliance
- Enable better long-term maintenance: saving between 5-20% of project costs by minimizing errors and rework
…all of which are essential as the energy landscape becomes more complex with the growing adoption of DERs.
