Post by AAU Energy

Researchers from AAU Energy and RWTH Aachen University present the blueprint for a resilient power grid of the future⚡️   For more than a century, our power grid has operated like a single giant, synchronized clock – efficient, but dangerously vulnerable in case of large failures.   As we swap heavy fossil-fueled generators for wind and solar, we are losing the "inertia" that keeps that clock ticking robustly. But a team of researchers from AAU Energy and RWTH Aachen University – including Professor Frede Blaabjerg and Associate Professor Subham Sahoo – has just published a breakthrough paper in Nature that turns 100 years of power systems logic on its head.   Inspired by the architecture of the internet, the researchers propose a radical shift: moving away from one rigid, large synchronous machine toward a "cellular" grid.   In this new "Internet of Energy," the grid is divided into autonomous, self-healing grids, but still connected. Much like data packets on the web, if one unit goes down, the rest of the system stays online. By using intelligent power electronics as the "energy routers" of this network, we expect to achieve a level of resilience that fossil-fuel plants could never provide.   Frede Blaabjerg explains:   "We cannot solve tomorrow’s challenges by simply building more of the same. We need a fundamental shift from a rigid, synchronous architecture to a flexible, cell-like-based network. We think it is the only way to achieve true independence from fossil fuels without compromising long-term security of supply."   The benefits of asynchronous energy balancing are twofold: enhanced resilience against technical failures and cyberattacks, and the potential for massive infrastructure savings, as energy can be balanced locally rather than transported across vast distances. In some cases, long-distance transmission will still be necessary but far less often than today.   Through the ERC-funded project SAFEr Grid, researchers at AAU Energy are already working to bring these solutions to industry leaders who manage our grids today.   "We have drawn the blueprint for the future. Now, it’s about implementation and ensuring we can phase out fossil fuels for good without ever having to worry about the lights going out," says Frede Blaabjerg.