Managing power grid complexity
In today’s distributed energy system, managing power grid complexity is challenging. With the rapid growth of intermittent renewables, rising numbers of prosumers and Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), electrification, and growing demand for power – it’s becoming ever more difficult for utilities to deliver the reliable energy we’ve all come to expect.
But grid operators are often handling these changes with an ageing infrastructure that wasn’t built with a distributed energy system in mind. We need a new approach that can manage power grid complexity and ensure the grid will accelerate the energy transition, not hold it back.
Software underpinned with a strong data foundation is key. When energy utilities make this a priority, grid complexity can be effectively managed, providing a resilient power supply even as we shift to cleaner energy.
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Top challenges of IT for this industry
Grid modernization: Invest for the future | Build a resilient grid: Protect your energy supply against extreme weather | Break down silos: Make data accessible | Automate grid processes | Protect your utility’s mission critical infrastructure
Grid modernization & Build a resilient grid.
An IEA study found that the world must add or replace 80 million km in the grid by 2040 or risk hampering the energy transition, impacting energy security. Preparing the grid for the future means:
- Integrating and managing more intermittent renewable energy and DERs
- Accommodating electrification and growing demand for power
- Planning for an omnidirectional flow of energy in a distributed energy system
- Viewing energy consumers as partners
By implementing Grid Orchestration Software, utilities can tackle the complex task of balancing a sustainable energy system. Grid operators can leverage real-time data and apply advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
With grid orchestration software, utilities can manage supply and demand dynamically and tackle the toughest grid modernization challenges, including:
- Regulating the flow of power across the network, ensuring a resilient and reliable supply, even with a greater share of intermittent renewables
- Incorporating new renewable resources into the grid
- Connecting DERs into the grid and managing the omnidirectional flow to and from prosumers
- Integrating existing systems and solutions into the sustainable energy grid
- Achieving a unified view of the entire network
Grid Orchestration Software offers an intelligent, flexible and integrated software platform. Grid Orchestration Software harnesses data, putting AI and Machine Learning to work. At its core is a data fabric with modern technologies and methods that allow you to unleash the value of data to transform data into intelligent automation and actionable insights.
By leveraging GridOS applications, both innovative new apps as well as modernized proven apps become composable solutions that are modular, interoperable and flexible. It enables you to optimize grid operations, ensure resilience and a reliable electricity supply, whilst deploying more renewables, DERs and volatile energy services the help accelerate the energy transition.
Break down silos. Make data accessible
Siloed data makes the complex task of operating a sustainable grid even more challenging. Utilities need a unified view of data across the entire system, from generation to transmission and distribution, including DERs. And they need this data in as close to real time as possible to respond dynamically to changing conditions whilst balancing supply and demand.
This relies on the free flow of data throughout the utility and across the many (and growing) organizations in the energy ecosystem.
A federated grid data fabric that utilizes effective integration principles offers a modern and future proof solution. It simplifies the complexities of data integration and ensures data quality across the energy ecosystem.
When energy utilities can access data throughout the network, they can achieve real-time, end to end visibility. They can leverage real-time data, advanced analytics, and machine learning, helping them to make better decisions, accelerate innovation, and improve efficiencies.
Automate grid processes
Automation is vital in managing the increased complexity of a sustainable power grid and helps to fast-track utilities’ grid modernization process.
Today’s digitalized energy grid is fed by distributed data collected from millions of data points. With effective integration, more data sources deliver more enriched data and an improved view of the grid.
But traditional manual processes struggle to keep pace with today’s data volumes and grid complexity.
Though, advanced software solutions enable utilities to react to change in real-time, automatically responding when conditions change. But when solutions are delivered via a comprehensive Grid Orchestration platform, utilities can coordinate multiple automation processes across the network. This helps build efficiencies and delivers a more reliable and resilient service.
- Automating DER scheduling and DER optimization
- Voltage management
- Automating Fault Isolation and Service Restoration
Automation leads to fewer outages and faster restoration times. Utilities can quickly spot issues and deal with them before they cause major disruption for customers.
Protect your utility’s mission critical infrastructure
The energy sector is a prime target for threat actors with cyberattacks on utilities increasing by 118% between 2020 and 2022.
Day-to-day management relies on data exchange between all nodes of the energy ecosystem, including with consumers and DERs. But this creates a huge array of vulnerabilities ready for cybercriminals to exploit.
Software applications, sensors, IoT devices, hybrid cloud, APIs – every source bringing data into the utility is a potential risk.
With a distributed energy model, the traditional approach of guarding the company’s network perimeter no longer works.
Enter Zero Trust. – Never trust. Always verify.
In a Zero Trust model, all users, even those within the utility, are continuously authenticated, authorized, and validated. Access to data and resources is only given when it’s needed by employees to complete a particular task.
With next-generation grid orchestration software like GridOS, a Zero Trust security model is in-built to utility IT architecture.
Steps to take in Grid Modernisation
- Implementing Grid Orchestration Software
- Make Data Accessible Across the Network
- Coordinate multiple automation processes
- Build a Zero Trust environment