Schneider Electric VIDEO | The Future of the Energy Economy is Diversified
Without a doubt, today’s electricity grid is the largest and most complex machine in the world. Flying over a city at night gives one an appreciation for just how sprawling and interconnected this modern marvel is. One can think about nearly every twinkling light on the ground below as an asset connected to the grid ecosystem.
Many questions arise as we look to the future of the electric grid. What will the grid of today look like tomorrow? Is there a better, more cost effective, and reliable way to operate grid ecosystems? Could a power grid function without a central operator? How will advancing technology change the landscape? Is the value of the grid shared equitably among participants?
Also known as the “prosumer”, consumers are taking a more active role in the electric grid today and it is expected to continue to play out in the future. We are approaching a period where “every company is an energy company”. This declaration gets to the heart of the prosumer movement and the concept of a burgeoning grid superorganism Schneider Electric refers to as the MeshGrid™ ecosystem.
MeshGrid represents a move from an era of centralized “command and control” to one of decentralized “continuous automated optimization” where the meshing of physical and virtual worlds, coupled with the shift of consumers to prosumers, fundamentally alters the supply-demand relationship. The implementation of Active Energy Management can be one of the ways to prepare for a MeshGrid future.
Futuristic, you say? So was the internet 20 years ago. The question that remains and the one that causes innovators to disrupt industries just like ours: why not?
