Distributed Energy Generation

The global energy landscape is changing at a rapid pace. The world is moving away from the conventional twentieth-century-style centralized grid, which was fueled by coal and gas power plants. In its place a new market, powered by distributed energy, is emerging. Distributed energy generation (DEG) refers to grid-connected homes, or commercial units, that generate, use, store and sell their own electricity from renewable sources (such as wind and solar).

Renewables comprise an increasingly large portion of our energy. This poses a challenge for electricity system operators that must integrate these intermittent sources into the wider grid. However global energy demand has never been more versatile, as a range of emerging resources — solar paired with batteries, smart thermostats, intelligent water heaters, electric car chargers — are creating new kinds of virtual power plants. Today the grid is more flexible, dynamic, and decentralized than ever before, bringing about increased resiliency, improved efficiency, and lowered emissions.