On an Information and Control Architecture for Future Electric Energy Systems

This article presents considerations toward an information and control architecture for future electric energy systems driven by massive changes resulting from the societal goals of decarbonization and electrification. This article describes the new requirements and challenges of an extended information and control architecture that needs to be addressed for continued reliable delivery of electricity. It identifies several new actionable information and control loops, along with their spatial and temporal scales of operation, which can together meet the needs of future grids and enable deep decarbonization of the electricity sector. The present architecture of electric power grids designed in a different era is thereby extensible to allow the incorporation of increased renewables and other emerging electric loads.