Schlagwort: ‘Automatisierung’
Designing the Internet of Energy
Our electricity grids are essentially 19th-century technology. For over a hundred years, they’ve operated as a single, massive synchronized block. But today, that rigidity is a liability. Volatile wind and solar sources don’t provide the physical stability we used to get from traditional power plants, and recent events—like the 2026 cyberattack in Berlin—showed just how easily a local failure can threaten the entire system.
Martin Braun
To fix this, a research team from our faculty and Aalborg University just published a new approach in Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering. The work is led by Professor Antonello Monti, who heads the Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems (ACS) at our faculty. The idea is simple: treat the grid like the internet. Instead of one giant, fragile unit, Monti’s team proposes breaking the grid into smaller, autonomous “sub-nets”. Because these parts are connected asynchronously, a fault or an attack in one area stays isolated. The rest of the network just keeps running.
This is the core of the SAFEr Grid project, an ERC Synergy Grant initiative coordinated by RWTH. We aren’t talking about a massive, overnight construction project. It’s a long-term evolution to build a grid that handles renewables by design and is tough enough to stop a local glitch from becoming a regional disaster.
