Key trends, challenges and resilience risks in evolving power systems

• Reviewing the systemic changes influencing electricity grid resilience
• Power vs. energy, including why grids fail and the causes of blackouts
• Grid requirements, from second-by-second operation to long-term planning
• Matching demand with an increasingly ‘variable’ electricity supply
• Quantifying the reality of renewable energy ‘variability’: timeframes, statistics and forecasting/foresight capabilities
• Contrasting the different challenges in solar vs. wind-centric power systems
• The economics of reliable supply, e.g. levelized costs (LCOE) vs. firming costs
• From scarcity to surplus: clean power, grid congestion and curtailment
• Quantifying the potential system capacity increases required by the growth of data centres, electric vehicles (EVs) and electrified heat
• Examples of power systems in transition (country case studies, e.g. China, Australia, the UK, India)
• An independent perspective on which key grid trends to watch, and why

Power system flexibility, from grid operations to long-term planning

• Defining ‘firm’ capacity and flexibility on different timeframes, from sub-second to long-term
• The challenge of providing reliable grid operations with fewer thermal generators
• Grid flexibility solutions, including: energy storage, interconnection, low-carbon thermal power
• Reviewing grid electricity storage today, including key limitations and emerging technologies
• Quantifying responsiveness and resilience requirements for key grid/ancillary services
• Fast frequency controls and synthetic inertia, through grid-forming inverters
• Voltage control and reactive power
• Paying for resilience: project and system firming solutions and costs for balancing variable power supply
• The rise of ‘dispatchable’ solar, including the emergence of 24-hour, baseload solar
• Example policy frameworks and tenders for firm and baseload clean power
• Options for low-carbon ‘dispatchable’ supply
• Policy mechanisms for forward peak capacity planning, such as capacity markets
• Long-duration energy storage: options, economics and limits to scale

Meeting peak demand and capacity growth requirements

• The impacts of electrification and demand growth on peak demands and system capacity needs
• Local distribution network capacity constraints and limitations (and solutions)
• How far can electrification penetrate, and under which key constraints?
• How much new grid is required?
• Congestion and curtailment in the grid, including scale and system cost impacts
• Reviewing the options for expanding grid network capacity
• Solutions for increasing capacity from existing grid lines
• ‘Virtual’ power lines, dynamic line rating (DLR) and more
• Practical, natural and geographical constraints on grid expansion, including sociopolitical barriers and grid planning alternatives
• Paying for the grid, including: required growth, capital and consumer costs, offshore vs. onshore grids
• Interconnectors: connectivity advantages vs. energy security considerations

Grid-edge assets: distributed energy, smart grids and virtual power plants

• Evolution and revolution at the grid edge (‘smart’ demand & the ‘Internet of Energy’)
• Power supply and storage behind-the-meter
• Aggregation and the growth of virtual power plants (VPPs), including: their role in grid balancing, capacity support and grid resilience
• Aggregation, algorithms and AI: new realms in asset management
• Demand-side response (DSR) programmes, from industrial into residential markets
• Price elasticity and the significance of time-of-use (ToU) and dynamic tariffs in power system flexibility
• Sources and implementation of dispatchable demand
• What does a ‘smart’ power system require, in terms of technology and customer acceptance?
• Decentralised and centralised approaches to grid flexibility: competition and/or co-operation?
• Microgrids: trends in technology integrations, scales, deployments and enabling technologies
• Grid-connected microgrids for system resilience, including: event recovery, capacity balancing, EV charging integration
• Local energy trading: peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity and decentralised energy markets

Modern power systems, China, and the rise of the ‘electrostate’

• Evolving power systems in the face of changing energy transition forecasts
• China’s energy transition: the rise of the world’s first ‘electrostate’?
• Which resources are required to build an electrostate?
• Primary renewable energy constraints, including: energy density, land use and location (illustrated with data and quantitative calculations)
• The current global picture, prospects and timeframes for ‘in-shoring’ key electrostate technology building blocks and components
• What are the limits to scale, and how might ‘partial’ electrostates develop?
• What are the cost barriers (to consumers) of transitioning to an electrostate?
• Electrification and energy security in the context of free trade retreats, protectionism, and bilateral trade
• The convergence of IT with energy, and what it means for pace of change
• The integration of electricity grids with the wider energy system, including clean fuels
• Evaluating the role of ‘power-to-fuels’ (PtX) and power/gas system integration
• Summary: pathways to growing clean-but-resilient power systems