Net Zero & the Grid

Smart Grid

The mass digititization and automation of the grid that's underway

We've written earlier about how Grid operators must match supply and demand instantaneously in order to maintain a stable and balanced grid. Traditionally, this was done by dialling supply up or down through fast response generating units (Peaker Plants and Flywheels), only switching off segments of demand as a last resort.

With the passage of time, control and automation technologies have been progressively added to the discipline. The Smart Grid is shorthand for this effort - the journey to far greater automation of these processes throughout the network, in time all the way down to device level.

Improved metering & control technology throughout the grid allows operators to apply more advanced and selective automation strategies on both supply and demand sides. The emergence of significant capacity in Distributed Energy Resources or (DERs) offers more flexibility in the ramp up of energy supply - think about the considerable energy stored in EVs and domestic batteries. On the demand side, embedded control technology at device level could enable selective switching off or dialling back for an agreed period of units/groups of EV chargers, HPs, chillers, fridges and freezers - all of which could be done with minimal impact to the user if the intervention occurred within certain time limits. Aggregated, this amounts to considerable powers of intervention for grid operators.

The term Smart Grid describes the digitital infrastructure that enables Grid operators to take these actions – to monitor and manage the transport of electrical energy from power sources (both in generation or storage units) to match the ups and downs of demand from consumers (end-users). It will become ever more important as the grid grows and as DERs assume greater market share. (Read later about about DERs, DERMS, VPPs.)

It's worth noting that Smart Grid is somewhat of a blanket term covering several distinct technology layers, and they sit at very different points on the maturity curve. The layers, roughly in order of maturity:

Well established and widely deployed

Advanced metering infrastructure (smart meters) — hundreds of millions installed globally, mandatory in many jurisdictions
Supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) — operational for decades in transmission
Real-time monitoring and fault detection at transmission level
Basic demand response programmes with large commercial and industrial customers

Established but unevenly deployed

Distribution automation — widespread in advanced economies, lagging elsewhere
Time-of-use pricing and dynamic tariffs at consumer level
Grid-scale forecasting and weather-integrated dispatch

Still genuinely emerging

Automated demand response at device level in homes
Full DERs integration and DERMS at scale
VPPs aggregation of consumer assets
AI-driven real-time optimisation across the full network

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The Smart Grid is in operation and currently delivers monitoring capability to grid operators and provides levers of control. The IEA estimates that digitally enabled demand response could reduce the Curtailment of variable renewable energy systems by more than 25% by 2030¹, increasing system efficiency and reducing costs for customers. The Smart Grid will grow ever more sophisticated on the journey to Net Zero. It is undergoing fast-paced evolution, particularly as an ever-greater share of renewable power and smart devices come online. Moving to the next-generation Smart Grid requires critical developments:

The widespread adoption of digitized devices by consumers
Network connections to those devices c/w appropriate security
Configuration of the devices and local networks
Permissions to third parties (grid operators) to access those devices
System wide analytics, automation and security

Our next series of posts will cover a range of storage use cases in grid management.