Intelligence in electricity networks for embedding renewables and distributed generation

Abstract Over the course of the 20th century, the electrical power systems of in-dustrialized economies have become one of the most complex systems created by mankind. In the same period, electricity made a transition from a novelty, to a conve-nience, to an advantage, and finally to an absolute necessity. World-wide electricity use has been ever-growing. The electricity infrastructure consists of two highly-interrelated and complex subsystems for commodity trade and physical delivery. To ensure the infrastructure is up and running in the first place, the increasing electric-ity demand poses a serious threat. Additionally, there are a number of other trends that are forcing a change in infrastructure management. Firstly, there is a shift to intermittent sources: a larger share of renewables in the energy mix means a higher influence of weather patterns on generation. At the same time, introducing more combined heat and power generation (CHP) couples electricity production to heat demand patterns. Secondly, the location of electricity generation relative to the load centers is changing. Large-scale generation from wind is migrating towards and into the seas and oceans, away from the locations of high electricity demand. O