Playing Translator Between Solar & Utilities

With last week’s solar trade show Solar Power International conference over and done with, let’s move from the latest advances in solar power technology to how to keep all that new solar tech from crashing the grid. The answer is communications — and in my weekly update at GigaOm Pro (subscription required) I lay out the most important grid “phrases” that will enable future solar systems to speak the same language.
Last year, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) hooked up with the Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Solar Electric Power Association to define how inverters could help utilities manage grid stability. Most inverters are capable of commu...