The intelligence layer: Why smarter control will define the grid's future

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Nexus, Publish By GHD.

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Where ideas connect.

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Well, welcome to the Nexus podcast.

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I'm Ben Hall.

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Global thought leadership manager, GHD.

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Today

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we're looking at one of

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the most important

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and least visible shifts

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in the energy transition.

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Active grid control

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as renewables,

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electrification and distributed energy

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reshape our networks.

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The real question isn't

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just how much we build.

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It's how intelligently we operate.

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Well, joining me is Ian

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Lloyd, technical director

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for network innovation

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for GHD in the UK.

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Ian, great to have you with us. Yeah.

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Thank you. Ben.

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Nice to be here.

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Oh that's great to hear Luke.

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And let's start.

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Do you have an article on Nexus

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which talks about a quiet

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revolution happening

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beneath the physical infrastructure

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of the energy transition?

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What's changing in our networks

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that makes active control

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so critical right now?

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I think Ben, one of the

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most significant changes

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at the grid has gone

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from the one way

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a uni directional delivery network

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into a

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a real time

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balancing system,

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with more wind, more solar,

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more electrification,

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more distributed resources

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that are peppered across

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their networks.

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We've got variability,

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bi directional flows,

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lower inertia in different places.

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So stability doesn't

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come for free anymore in terms of

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having so many hundreds

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of tons of spinning

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resistive power systems

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that are connected to the network.

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That's why active grid control matters.

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It's the intelligence layer

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now that keeps reliability high

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while unlocking

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data flexibility for the future.

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And as you mentioned

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historically, networks

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were passive and largely

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uni directional.

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And so what does it mean

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in practical terms

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to move to this dynamic

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bidirectional system

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that you've just spoken about.

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And why can't traditional control

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approaches cope with that shift?

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So in practical terms, power

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now does flow both ways.

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It's it's also

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peppered across the network.

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So we're not

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we're not anchored

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by big power stations

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that are centralized within.

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So like

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you mean certain areas of the country

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that feed transmission networks.

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These power systems now

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they do feed both way.

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So they they're bi directional.

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Customers can generate,

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they can store, they can shift demands.

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Constraints appear

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locally and very quickly.

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Everything happens very quickly

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into into the electrical domain.

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Things can get exciting very rapidly

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and not always in a in a good sense.

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And so those traditional approaches

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were built

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for predictable,

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loads really so like

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can we discuss them,

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some of

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the deterministic engineering

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that was involved in the delivery of so

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like of the power networks

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that we're used to

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and we've been

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we've been very reliant on them

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for over 100 years. Right.

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And there's

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been many thousands

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of very knowledgeable brains

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that have aided the engineering

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and the design and the

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and the predictability

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about the controlling

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the scheduling of the generation.

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That has been critically important

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for decentralized systems.

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But yet they've had much slower

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operator responses.

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People have had time

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just to be able to like, finesse

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exactly what they should naturally do.

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A good analogy, Ben, right?

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Is

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when I first started

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in the industry,

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people started discussing

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about how they schedule generation

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to come onto the network.

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And that scheduling of,

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generation

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was based on a number

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of different variable factors.

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It would be the time of the year,

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it would be the weather forecast.

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It would be so like the predicted.

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So like load it uptake

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and then in, in in a world

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where there was only 3

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or 4 TV channels,

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TV times,

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which would act as a very strong guide

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for the likely pickup of load. Right.

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And I remember certain scenarios where

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where the World Cup, right,

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or half time in the World Cup

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cause such a, such a

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a big load increase with everybody

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putting on their kettles right there.

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It caused a cost, a real concern.

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so that deterministic state

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is somewhat shifted away.

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And today we need better

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visibility, some faster coordination,

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of many hundreds

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or maybe even millions of future assets

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that are peppered across the networks

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as we will end up

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curtailing renewables,

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fire fighting faults over

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reinforcing networks

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or taking more operational risks.

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Yeah.

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And you mentioned, you know, the

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the kettle analogy.

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I mean,

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and not just the grid systems,

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but pretty much everything these days,

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lot more complex than they used to be.

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Is.

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And it's the same, isn't it, for

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for where you're working.

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absolutely the same.

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And the,

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variability of technologies,

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the locational situation

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about naturally

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where they exist

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and becomes a very active component

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in terms

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of like the new control systems

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that are required for the future.

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You outline primary,

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secondary, tertiary

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and even emerging core

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ordinary controllers.

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Can we break down

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how that hierarchy works

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in simple terms or plain terms.

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And why that architecture

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is so important for resilience.

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There's always a,

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hierarchy of control

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solutions that sit within

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within power systems, networks

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and primary

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control

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is all instances really site

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the engineered control solutions

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that make sure that that our networks,

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are responsive and they can

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they can be

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they can be fast

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in terms of select

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the detection of faults,

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the clearing of faults,

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the management of voltage control