Key market changes
Utilities need to rethink and realign their operations, based on current trends affecting the energy sector, including:
Utility providers must consider how to effectively manage the wide range of new asset types that are now available on the grid. These include:
distributed energy sources (such as solar, wind, and hydrogen)
electric vehicles (chargers and mobile batteries)
methane (generation and storage)
batteries (generation and storage)
heat pumps
As well as a greater number of asset types, there is also an increase in the assets themselves. Previously, when a substation transformed energy via a switchgear, the number of assets used was around 1,000. Nowadays, an EV battery used for grid management can reach millions of assets. Utilities can only efficiently deploy these assets on a huge scale with smart infrastructure.
Over 16 million electric vehiclesare expected to be sold worldwidein 2027.[3] And utilities need to adapt to how these vehicles consume energy. Providing energy to vehicles on-the-move presents its own set of unique challenges in terms of where the vehicles are heading and how much energy they will need.
Smart infrastructure provides a platform on which data can be monitored and exchanged in real time, leading to a faster and more accurate balancing of the grid. A greater number of variable assets also need to be taken into account, such as consumption forecasts and vehicle energy storage.
The increased use of renewable energy has also led to new services. These include energy-as-a-service for electric vehiclesand the optimization of flexibility and demand/response, which is associated with storage that is delivered by new stakeholders.
Regulators and the utilities themselvesare no longer the only stakeholders in the management of the grid. Aggregators, virtual power plant providers, renewables operators, consumers as prosumers, and public network microgrids (such as hospitals) can all participate in grid management.