The growth in new renewable energy sources is shifting the entire paradigm of what the energy grid was designed to do. According to the CTO of GE Grid Solutions, Vera Silva, this is one of the biggest trends that’s driving transformation in the energy business. Silva told industry publication Electric Light & Power that renewables will require shifts not only in how the grid is operated but in the software tools and hardware used to administer it at all levels.

In the past, the grid role was about bringing power from centralized generation to the consumer. You would fit and forget the few distributed generation sources. But once you get to this volume of renewables connected to distribution, you have to take an active approach. This becomes a target for change. We have to be supporting the connection of new resources across all layers of the grid and demand growth with the electrification of heat and transport. Grid operators will need to orchestrate all these new resources to avoid constraints in the grid.

-Vera Silva, CTO of GE Grid Solutions