Many see decentralized power grids as the best option for improving energy security. These networks enhance traditional grid infrastructure by utilizing community-based energy resources alongside centralized power stations. Here’s how a team of MIT engineers seeks to improve decentralized power grids and help keep homes energized in the future.
Power Outages on the Rise
Reports show that power outages are on the rise globally for several reasons. A lack of upkeep and maintenance is responsible for an aging system and lowered performance in many areas. Additionally, severe weather conditions are more likely than in the past, adding to the stress on old infrastructure.
Another contributing factor to power outages that many people never think about is the switch to renewables. Solar panels are prime examples of systems that provide low cost energy but have times and scenarios in which they are not able to produce anything.
During the night or extended periods of cloudy weather conditions, solar systems can’t provide the necessary energy required to support the communities along. Unlike traditional power outages, predictable gaps in renewable energy generation (such as cloudy days or nighttime for solar) can be mitigated by coordinating grid-edge devices to adjust consumption and distribution in real time..
Power Outage Stats
A 2023 American Housing Survey shed light on just how bad the energy crisis has become. The report showed that at least one in four US households have experienced a power outage over the last year. It also revealed that +70% of those interviewed experienced the outage for +6 hours.
Interestingly, the statistics reveal that rural communities are more likely to experience prolonged power outages. However, it highlighted certain cities like Detroit, that suffer from uncharacteristically high outages due to bad infrastructure and other factors.
Global Concerns
You can see this issue expand exponentially when you examine global outages. There are many cases of entire nations being plunged into darkness for days and even weeks. In one incident, Cuba’s aging electrical grid failed, resulting in +10M people being left without power for days.
Local Power Grids Evolving
When you think of your local power grid. You likely envision a centralized power plant, substations, and transmission lines. This infrastructure is still the most common, but it has seen some major changes due to the evolution of home electronics.
Source – MIT
Grid-Edge Devices
The term grid edge refers to devices that reside far from the central power supply. These devices often have advanced capabilities including being capable of power generation, storage, and tuning. Grid edge devices include residential solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, water heaters, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)
The growing use of distributed energy resources creates new opportunities in the market. These smart devices provide the ability to monitor, control, communicate, and actuate tasks. It’s this flexibility that a team of MIT engineers sought to utilize in their latest strategy to improve grid resilience, protect against cyber attacks, and stabilize the network.
Decentralized Power Grids Study
A recent study published in the journal the National Academy of Sciences, called “Resilience of the electric grid through trustable IoT-coordinated assets“1 introduces a novel framework to leverage edge devices to secure grid resilience against various scenarios. The new system leverages coordinated grid edge devices to rebalance or support the network.
IoT Devices
At the core of the study is the use of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. To qualify as an IoT device, the unit must have a sensor and be able to communicate data to the internet. Notably, there are billions of these smart devices located around the world currently. As such, the researchers focused on utilizing these devices, as they are predicted to make up the lion’s share of edge devices within the next 5 years.
The strategy would see homeowners subscribe to a regional market. This subscription would make their IoT devices eligible for the micro grid. Once approved, the trusted devices would be capable of coordinating power consumption and distribution determined by the proprietary algorithm engineers developed.
EURIEKA (Efficient, Ultra-REsilient, IoT-Coordinated Assets)
The EURIEKA algorithm is at the core of the engineers’ study. The algorithm scans the network for participating edge devices. It then determines whether to supplement the power grid or reduce power consumption from the IoT devices based on preset criteria. What makes the algorithm so effective is that it’s based on each local electricity market.
Operator
Local market operators play a vital role in this approach. Each market has an operator that is tasked with managing and communicating with grid participants and other operators. They are the nodes responsible for initiating the EURIEKA algorithm and ensuring it functions correctly.
Establish Trust
The first step to this process is to establish trust. There are so many IoT devices that it’s crucial for the system to only work with vetted and approved units to prevent security risks. The algorithm can independently verify and approve trustworthy IoT devices, determining the best combination to effectively mitigate power failures and stabilize the system.
Local Electricity Market
Part of this strategy creates a local energy market where IoT participants can secure rewards for their efforts. The system automatically tracks each participant’s actions and pays out returns based on their energy contributions. Notably, the engineers have conceived a variety of ways that network participants could receive compensation ranging from direct payments to bill credits.
Testing Decentralized Power Grids
MIT engineers utilize a variety of devices and algorithms to test their new approach. Specifically, the engineers employed a utility-friendly simulator, real-time hardware-in-the-loop validation, and a co-simulation platform.
Power-Grid Algorithm
The testing included several scenarios that ranged in power loss situations. The scenarios took into account failures on every level of the system. In some cases, the loss was as little as 5% failure. In other cases, the network saw catastrophic failures of up to 40%.
Grid Attack Scenarios
The researchers tested the system against a major cyber attack. In this scenario, the team envisioned a smart thermostat getting hacked. The hacked devices were then cranked up to increase stress on the power grid to dangerous levels. The increased stress would cause a traditional power grid to fail. However, the grid edge systems proved resilient.
Natural Disasters
The team tested their network against weather events as well. They envisioned a major natural disaster that caused a large percentage of the transmission lines to be damaged. This scenario is common across the globe as major natural disasters are more frequent.
Decentralized Power Grids Test Results
Testing of the algorithm proved that networks of grid-edge devices can supplement energy loss due to various attacks. The system successfully restabilized the grid by adjusting the grid topology. Additionally, the new algorithm can automatically determine what devices are trustworthy and their capabilities.
Benefits of Decentralized Power Grids
There are many benefits that decentralized power grids bring to the market. For one, they offer tailored power generation that takes into account the power consumption of each device to provide efficiency. This system is a greener and more sustainable alternative to the status quo.
IoT Devices are everywhere
Another benefit is the use of IoT devices. There are billions of these units located globally with the potential to help stabilise power grids. This strategy takes into account their capabilities and utilizes them together to create a more robust electrical grid, capable of handling extreme conditions without failure.
Fills Renewable Energy Gaps
Technologies like wind and solar power are great for creating clean energy. However, they have times when they are not capable of producing the required electricity needed to power homes. In these scenarios, the engineers envision grid edge devices stepping up to take on the extra workload.
Profitable
One of the potential benefits of this strategy is a more dynamic local electricity market, where participants could be compensated for their contributions. While MIT researchers propose this concept, specific financial incentives such as bill credits or payments would depend on market implementation and regulatory frameworks. It would be nice to receive a free month’s electricity because the month prior, your smart fridge and thermostat did their part to help keep the grid stable.
Decentralized Power Grids Researchers
The decentralized power grid study was put forth by a team of MIT engineers. The paper lists the lead authors as Vineet Nair and John Williams. The research was co-authored by Anu Annaswamy as well. Notably, it received funding from Indian Institute of Technology, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative.
This study expands on lead researchers Nair’s previous work in the field of adaptive control theory. Adaptive control theory revolves around making systems that can sense and automatically correct issues without human intervention. This latest protocol falls in line with this research and could one day help to keep homes energized all year round.
Companies Leading in Energy Solutions
The race to provide the most resilient energy solutions to the market has resulted in several key players emerging. These companies have put forth millions in R&D to enhance energy productions and delivery across the market. Here’s one company ideally positioned to capitalize on any power grid improvements.
Duke Energy Corp (DUK -0.24%) entered the market in 1904 as a hydroelectric power plant located on the Catawba River. The company was founded by James Buchanan Duke and Benjamin Newton Duke and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since its launch, Duke Energy Corporation saw significant growth. Today it’s one of the largest electric power companies in the United States.
Duke Energy’s rise to market dominance occurred over many decades, acquisitions, and market movements. In 1997, the company merged with PanEnergy Corporation to further its offerings. Then, in 2005, Duke Energy, the company, acquired Cinergy Corporation, increasing market penetration across key states.
Duke Energy Corporation (DUK -0.24%)
Today, Duke Energy remains a market leader in the energy production sector. The company continues to innovate and integrate new technology as part of its strategy to offer reliable and affordable energy to its clients.
Its positioning and history would enable Duke Energy to integrate the grid edge study findings to improve its offerings. As such, DUK is seen as a strong addition to any portfolio.
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Decentralized Power Grids Future
There are still many roadblocks to adoption that the engineers acknowledge must be overcome to succeed. First of all, the system will require clients and businesses to opt in to the network. From there, they will need to agree to integrate certain hardware to enable the system to inject power back into the network and track their efforts. All of these steps will require educating the masses and providing low-cost and accessible solutions.
Achieving Power Grid Resilience
You have to hand it to this team of out-of-the-box thinkers for their unique approach. Their concept utilized readily available grid edge devices to help stabilize the entire system. This strategy makes sense, doesn’t require huge costs or network changes, and leverages the massive IoT networks in place today. As such, you can expect to see further research into decentralized power grids moving forward.
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Study Reference:
1. V.J. Nair, P. Srivastava, V. Venkataramanan, P.S. Sarker, A. Srivastava, L.D. Marinovici, J. Zha, C. Irwin, P. Mittal, J. Williams, J. Kumar, H.V. Poor, & A.M. Annaswamy, Resilience of the electric grid through trustable IoT-coordinated assets, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (8) e2413967121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413967121 (2025).