How do we build an electricity grid fit for the future?

Many existing national electricity grids were conceived, designed, and constructed around the era of coal. That era is coming to an end. How do we make the transition to an electricity grid that’s fit for the future?

Matching the build out of renewable energy generation, such as on- and offshore wind and solar photovoltaics, every country faces the need to radically upgrade its electricity grid in order to take advantage of these new sources of power to decarbonise heat, transport and industry. Tomorrow’s electricity grid holds incredible promise, unlocking a national energy system where suppliers and consumers are active participants in an increasingly dynamic electrical ecosystem.

Arup’s energy team is at the vanguard of this evolution. The scale of the undertaking is understandably large. In just the next six years, the UK’s transmission grid upgrade programme will build five times more electricity infrastructure than was constructed over the past 30 years. It’s an opportunity not just to adapt existing energy infrastructure, but to reimagine the power system as a whole.

Globally, electricity utilities all over the world will need to embark on similar grid upgrades, so we want to share what we’ve learnt about this process so far.

1. Progress requires a central conductor and deep collaboration

The need for accelerated, systemic change in the power system requires bold, government-supported leadership and transparency among a huge range of industry stakeholders and users. This means clarity about roles, responsibilities, investment sources and timelines. Commitment to an ambitious vision is vital to energy companies, as grid expansion and digitalisation promises to enhance business model flexibility and derisk their investments in renewables.

Given the level of systemic change required, developing a masterplan for a new electrical grid requires the early involvement of private actors like energy companies, technology suppliers and digital platforms, and effective communication with the public about the change that lies ahead. For governments and their energy authorities, this is a once-in-a-generation evolution, so it will also require an effective conductor at the centre, to coordinate developments at scale.

If coordination is half the story, collaboration is the other component. Traditionally, energy infrastructure is developed in a highly linear, sequential way of working. But this will take too long for the existential deadlines climate change presents. Our approach is to develop solutions collaboratively, bringing together all industry players to define shared goals throughout the design, construction and operational supply chain. The result is a radically faster roll-out.

Learn more about our work: Arup and AECOM form joint venture to power up The Great Grid Upgrade

2. A grid upgrade boosts overall energy resilience

Today’s energy grids face a range of resilience risks: ageing infrastructure, demand growth, intensifying weather events, cyber threats, human error. Industry body research from CDRI estimates that well over $100bn in energy infrastructure is exposed to climate effects alone. As electrification of society increases, so does people’s dependency on the electricity grid for their own individual resilience. The investment in an electricity grid fit for the future provides an opportunity to address these challenges.

Publication

Energy Resilience Framework

A more decentralised electricity supply has the potential to increase system resilience if sufficiently diversified through generation type, geography, and connectivity in the form of interconnectors. However, reliance on renewable sources of energy produces a greater need for multidisciplinary insights across domains like climate and meteorology and coastal protection from the planning process through to day-to-day grid operation.

Beyond robustness, the build out of a reflective electricity system can boost resilience. Digital monitoring increases the understanding of system impact from internal and external conditions – assisting decision making and response readiness. Although automated systems can reduce errors, the electricity grid fit for the future will continue to rely heavily on well-trained people to prevent and respond to system disruptions.

3. The future of electrification is digitally connected  

Digitalisation is central to the structure, functionality and efficient management of an electricity grid fit for the future. Designing and realising the transition to digital is a complex yet vital, initial task.

Since 2021, Arup has supported Great Britain’s National Electricity System Operator (NESO) on their Virtual Energy System programme which is designed to promote data exchange, data-driven decisions, whole-system monitoring, enabling operational optimisation, while ensuring an efficient and reliable energy system. In this work, we have identified 14 key socio-technical factors, across people, processes, data and technology that will be crucial to realise NESO’s Virtual Energy System. The result is a pathway to collaboratively develop the governance, data standards, access policies, security, skills, and wider support required to efficiently deliver the range of use cases that comprise a working Virtual Energy System.

Bringing true data sharing and interoperability to the energy industry is likely to lead to all sorts of other energy market innovation over time – a phenomenon we saw when the UK banking industry came together to form the Open Banking initiative. New entrants to the market appeared overnight offering new financial products and services to consumers. Digital energy has the same potential.

4. Higher grid performance requires advanced engineering

Although the tangible elements of the electricity grid – circuits, power lines, substations – were designed and engineered for the past, they provide a good foundation for an increasingly electrified future. Upgrading the system to be fit for purpose requires modern technology, an expanded planning horizon and anticipatory investment that will take us to 2050 and beyond.

In many places, the distance between electricity generation points and demand centres will increase – this is the case in the UK where wind resources are largely located in the north and demand centres in the south. Here, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines can serve as electricity transmission super highways, limiting losses while potentially reducing the number of required circuits. Throughout the network, increased and sophisticated use of sensors can increase the utilisation of existing and new system elements to be as efficient as possible. Where climate temperatures fluctuate, dynamic line rating takes real-time (and predicted) temperatures to maximise capacity of the transmission lines. Substation demand can be tracked continuously and demand peaks controlled through market-based consumer response. A digital grid will rely on this level of smart, continuous and predictive monitoring.

Building an electricity grid fit for the future will require the installation of new power system infrastructure as well as decommissioning of some existing infrastructure. This means digging, constructing, disposing, recycling and requiring emission-intensive materials such as steel, copper, and cement. Keeping with the overall net zero objective in mind, it is imperative for sustainable and nature-based practices to be applied to all aspects of construction to limit the negative impact of engineering the future grid.

Learn more about our work developing an energy system data sharing infrastructure for the UK

5. Flexibility and innovation will reshape the energy market

Once operational, the electricity grid of the future will act as an ecosystem to unlock innovation and ‘flexibility markets’. In this new situation, a wider range of players will be incentivised to provide critical grid services like storage, frequency response or demand reduction, benefiting from market forces to optimise balancing and efficient operation of the electricity system.

Flexibility markets also promise grid operators a range of tools to manage demand, with dynamic pricing and real-time incentives to shape consumer use of electricity. This is where a truly end-to-end digitalised power grid has most impact, by bringing the costs of choices to life for all consumers in the system. Reaching net zero isn’t simply about removing fossil fuels from energy production, it’s also about lowering or providing the system transparency to change the incentives around consumption.

Learn more about Arup’s work shaping future, flexibility markets for UK energy.

What do you do now?

Every country’s electricity grid is at a particular developmental stage, with a different mix of legacy technology and infrastructure to build on, and varying levels of future demand to meet. As we’ve seen, transition is a complex challenge, spanning planning, technology, operational collaboration, governance and engineering innovation. Our energy team is helping countries, network operators and energy companies to identify the most important and tangible first steps to take, and where to innovate and invest to achieve the ultimate goal, an electricity grid fit for the future.