A Grid as Smart as the Internet

Yanli Liu; Yixin Yu; Ning Gao; Felix Wu

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2019.11.015

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Engineering ›› 2020, Vol. 6 ›› Issue (7) : 778-788. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2019.11.015

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A Grid as Smart as the Internet

Yanli Liu^a^,^* ,
Yixin Yu^a ,
Ning Gao^a ,
Felix Wu^b^,^c^,^*

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Abstract

A new era of electricity is dawning that combines the decarbonization of the grid with the extensive electrification of all sectors of society. A grid as smart as the internet is needed to harness the full potential of renewables, accommodate technology disruptions, embrace the rise of prosumers, and seamlessly integrate nano-, mini-, and micro-grids. The internet is built upon a layered architecture that facilitates technology innovations, and its intelligence is distributed throughout a hierarchy of networks. Herein, we examine fundamental differences between data flows and power flows. The current operating paradigm of the grid is based on the conviction that a centralized grid operator is necessary to maintain instantaneous power balance on the grid. A new distributed paradigm can be realized by distributing this responsibility to sub-grids and requiring each sub-grid to maintain its net power balance. We present a grid as smart as the internet based on this new paradigm, along with a hierarchical network structure and a layered architecture of operating principles.

Keywords

Distributed intelligence / Electric grid / Internet / Renewables

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Yanli Liu, Yixin Yu, Ning Gao, Felix Wu. A Grid as Smart as the Internet. Engineering, 2020, 6(7): 778‒788 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2019.11.015

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