Real-Time Grid Digital Twins: The backbone of the next generation of network technology for distribution system operators

Electricity distribution networks are confronted with arguably the largest technological challenge since their inception more than a century ago: the energy transition. “The grid” was originally designed for an energy system made out of large, centralized, dispatchable power plants, with relatively predictable power flows, from the power plants to the cities to consumers. But the energy transition requires electricity distribution networks to host and integrate hundreds of millions of distributed solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, batteries, etc., creating bidirectional power flows and complex network dynamics. The intricacy of this new energy system is unprecedented: e.g., what used to be a simple low-voltage feeder in a street is becoming a full-blown power system with its own production, consumption, and storage, each of which have an interdependent relationship with the rest of the grid.