A Modern Intelligent Grid Mean New Motivations, Models and Methods

The US electric grid is undergoing profound transformation. New motivations and developments are changing longstanding models and methods. The historical underpinnings of the legacy grid have eroded while new alternatives have arisen to change how electric power and energy is produced, transported, utilized and managed. There is an unprecedented, accelerating proliferation of dynamic new components and devices on the distribution edge of the grid. These change its electrical properties and how it must be planned, engineered, analyzed, operated and managed. Conventional energy production and consumption is increasingly displaced by conservation, energy efficiency, demand response. Moreover, about half of the states have competitive retail energy markets that have changed traditional electric utility operations and management models. These foreshadow a likely move to real-time transactive energy markets in which power purchases and sales occur without regard to how power flows on the grid. Conventional models and methods will not suffice for analysis and operations of the grid. New approaches will be required to successfully plan, engineer, operate, analyze and manage the electric distribution grid in the presence of all these distributed, autonomous sources and sinks of energy. Fortunately, many new devices and applications are being deployed for monitoring, analyzing and controlling both the production and the utilization of power and energy.