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Smart Grids for a Resilient Energy Future

By Mr. Juan Roberto Paredes, Mr. Satish Saini, and Dr. Wei-Jen Lee

Though the first commercial power system was established less than 150 years ago, electricity has become a necessity of modern society. While the electricity grid is a technological marvel, it is increasingly unable to meet the demands of the 21st century due to its aging infrastructure, concerns on climate change, and demand for high-quality and reliable power in today’s digital information age.

Around the world, these pressures are growing more visible with more frequent large-scale disruptions and regional blackouts. In the United States, a winter storm in February 2021 caused a massive power shortage in Texas, serving as an urgent wake-up call. Similarly, California has recently experienced wildfire-induced power outages that have driven high-tech industries to seek alternative states with more reliable power systems to relocate their facilities.

At the same time, developing countries are facing rapid growth demand, struggling to deliver power to customers efficiently and reliably. While suffering from power supply shortages, transmission and distribution losses may reach 15-20% in some developing countries, compared to 5% in a mature power system.

What “Smart Grid” Means

Grid modernization — also referred to as the “Smart Grid” — has become a global catch-all phrase for the needed advancement in the power grid to accommodate current social, ecological, and environmental challenges in the generation, delivery, and consumption of electric power.

The Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI) at the United States Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) aims to create the modern grid of the future, characterized by:

  • Greater resilience to hazards of all types,
  • Improved reliability for everyday operations,
  • Enhanced security from an increasing and evolving number of threats,
  • Additional affordability to maintain our economic prosperity,
  • Superior flexibility to respond to the variability and uncertainty of conditions at one or more timescales, including a range of energy futures, and
  • Increased sustainability through energy-efficient and renewable resources.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Smart Grid Technical Activities Committee defines the Smart Grid as the modern version of the traditional electrical power grid, consisting of a network of generation, transmission, and distribution of power to the end consumers using digital automation technologies. These technologies enable two-way communication between the field equipment and devices along the grid with the utility and the customers for real-time monitoring, controlling, and operating for a safe, secure, reliable, efficient, self-healing, green, and resilient power grid.

Climate Change and Electrification Pressures

Modern society is facing another challenge: climate change due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report, electric power in the United States contributed up to 25% of GHG emissions in 2022. Although electrification in different sectors, such as transportation, will improve operational efficiency and reduce carbon footprint, it imposes an extra burden on the power systems. According to the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, controlling temperature increase within 1.5℃ requires the world to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. This would promote the transition to more sustainable low-carbon generation technologies.

Developing low-carbon emission alternative energy technologies is the right pathway to achieving zero emissions and an important goal for smart grid development, but it also presents challenges for system reliability. Many alternative energies, such as solar and wind power, are intermittent in nature and difficult to control. Integrating these energy sources into our current system creates challenges in ensuring they can reliably provide the majority of our future energy needs in the same way that we expect energy to be available today.

Building Blocks of a Comprehensive Smart Grid

A comprehensive smart grid design requires a holistic, top-down, and bottom-up approach. From a technical standpoint, a Smart Grid should:

  • Be equipped with advanced monitoring, control, and demand management. This includes wide-area monitoring and control, advanced meter infrastructure (AMI), and demand response, including support for “prosumers”, customers who use and generate electricity.
  • Adopt advanced components and operating concepts. This includes widespread deployment of sensors and automation, intelligent protection and control equipment, such as Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) for wide-area monitoring and control, power electronics for grid forming, and Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) to manage and control power flows; and the integration of Distributed Energy Resources and Inverter-Based Resources (DER/IBR). It also encompasses local energy systems such as microgrids and the aggregation of distributed resources that can act like a single power plant, often referred to as a Virtual Power Plant (VPPs).
  • Use advanced software and analytical tools to validate the accuracy of the models and enable near real-time operation. This would allow for enhanced grid control centers, improved forecasting, and robust data-driven analytics, including machine learning and artificial intelligence.
  • Enable the interconnection of lower environmental impact new generation technologies. The grid should be adaptable to the impacts of climate change and support emerging energy pathways, including renewable energy sources, energy storage, small modular reactors, and the hydrogen economy.
  • Have modular, standardized architecture and secure, common communication protocols. This will allow different systems to work together seamlessly.

Implementation and Workforce Readiness

Many technologies and policies have been implemented to make the grid smarter. In addition to infrastructure modernization, utilities must grapple with an aging workforce and the growing need to provide adequate training to operate more dynamic and sophisticated power systems. The paradigm of the electric power utility industry has changed dramatically. Regardless of many major technological advances, their effectiveness will be compromised without a skilled workforce to support the energy transition and grid modernization efforts.

There is a significant gap between today’s workforce skill set and actual workplace requirements based on advancing technology. This could cost the U.S. economy as much as $975 billion over the next 10 years, and G20 countries up to $11.5 trillion in GDP growth. According to a report by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), 62% of employers say that new engineering graduates do not have the skills they need.

There is a clear need for industry-linked training models that close the gap between novel grid technologies and the skills needed to deploy them. One replicable example is the CIRT Smart Power Grid Lab Model, developed with input from key professionals from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and in collaboration with the industry, IT providers, utilities, and other stakeholders, to help fill this gap.

Mr. Juan Roberto Paredes is a Senior Renewable Energy Specialist in the Energy Division at the Inter-American Development Bank. Mr. Satish Saini is a Utilities Industry Specialist at HEXstream. Dr. Wei-Jen Lee is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.

About the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET)

This article is part of the Energy Insights Series published by the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET). The CEET is a global, high-level body of engineers and energy systems experts, created under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General, with the goal of building coalitions and energy pathways for comprehensive decarbonization.

It should be acknowledged that these materials are for discussion purposes only, given the rapidly changing landscape of the energy transition and the various contexts in which they are relevant. CEET members are participating in their individual capacity and expertise without remuneration. Their professional affiliations are for identification purposes only, and their views and perspectives, including any statements, publications, social media posts, etc., are not representative of the United Nations, SDSN, or UNIDO.