There exists significant unutilized capacity within our residences and vehicles that could be capitalized on to strengthen local power networks and enhance their resilience against unexpected outages, a recent research study indicates.

In the wake of a cyber assault or natural calamity, a supplementary network of decentralized devices — including home solar panels, batteries, electric cars, heat pumps, and water heaters — could restore power or alleviate stress on the grid, according to MIT engineers.

These devices are considered “grid-edge” resources, positioned near consumers rather than close to central power facilities, substations, or transmission pathways. Grid-edge devices possess the ability to autonomously generate, store, or adjust their power consumption. In their research, the team illustrates how such devices might be utilized in the future to either supply power to the grid or recalibrate it by reducing or postponing their energy usage.

In a publication released this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the engineers unveil a framework for how grid-edge devices could support the power grid via a “local electricity marketplace.” Owners of these devices could participate in a regional market and effectively lend out their device to contribute to a microgrid or a local network of readily available energy resources.

If the primary power grid is disrupted, an algorithm crafted by the researchers would become active for each local electricity marketplace, swiftly discerning which devices in the network are reliable. This algorithm would then specify the combination of trustworthy devices that would be most effective in alleviating the power outage, either by injecting power into the grid or lowering their consumption, using an amount that the algorithm would compute and relay to the relevant participants. These participants could subsequently receive compensation through the marketplace based on their involvement.

The team demonstrated this innovative structure through various grid attack scenarios, evaluating failures at different strata of a power grid arising from multiple sources, including cyber assaults or natural disasters. Using their algorithm, they proved that distinct networks of grid-edge devices could successfully neutralize the various assaults.

The findings reveal that grid-edge devices, such as rooftop solar panels, EV chargers, batteries, and intelligent thermostats (for HVAC systems or heat pumps), could be utilized to stabilize the power grid during an attack.

“All these small devices can contribute incrementally by adjusting their energy usage,” states study co-author Anu Annaswamy, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “If we can leverage our smart dishwashers, solar panels on roofs, and electric vehicles, and collectively push forward, we can achieve a truly robust grid.”

The study’s co-authors from MIT also include lead author Vineet Nair and John Williams, alongside collaborators from various institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and others.

Power enhancement

The study expands upon their overarching work in adaptive control theory and the design of systems that automatically adjust to shifting conditions. Annaswamy, who heads the Active-Adaptive Control Laboratory at MIT, investigates methods to enhance the reliability of renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy.

“These renewable sources have a definitive temporal pattern, as we are certain the sun will set every day, which means solar energy will diminish,” Annaswamy explains. “How do you compensate for that deficiency?”

The researchers discovered that the solution might lie within the multitude of grid-edge devices that consumers are increasingly integrating into their homes.

“There is a growing number of distributed energy resources emerging, located closer to the consumer rather than near large energy generation plants, primarily due to individual initiatives aimed at decarbonization,” Nair notes. “Thus, there exists substantial capability at the grid edge. We should be able to utilize these resources effectively.”

As they contemplated solutions for addressing declines in energy from standard operations of renewable sources, the team also began to investigate other causes of energy dips, such as from cyber threats. They pondered whether the same grid-edge devices could assist in stabilizing the grid following an unexpected, targeted attack.

Assault mode

In their latest investigation, Annaswamy, Nair, and their team developed a framework for integrating grid-edge devices, particularly internet-of-things (IoT) devices, to bolster the larger grid in the event of an attack or disruption. IoT devices are tangible objects equipped with sensors and software that connect to the internet.

For their new model, termed EUREICA (Efficient, Ultra-REsilient, IoT-Coordinated Assets), the researchers commence with the premise that in the future, most grid-edge devices will also be IoT devices, allowing for wireless connections between rooftop panels, EV chargers, and smart thermostats to a broader network of similarly independent and distributed devices.

The team envisions that within a particular area, such as a community of 1,000 households, there exists a specific number of IoT devices that could potentially be enrolled in the local network or microgrid. This network would be overseen by an operator capable of communicating with operators from adjacent microgrids.

If the primary power grid is undermined or attacked, operators would implement the researchers’ decision-making algorithm to identify reliable devices within the network that can assist in mitigating the attack.

The team applied the algorithm across several scenarios, including a cyber attack where all smart thermostats from a specific manufacturer are compromised to elevate their setpoints at once, significantly altering a region’s energy load and destabilizing the grid. They also examined attacks and weather incidents that might sever the transmission of energy at various points and nodes throughout the power structure.

“During our simulations, we consider losses between 5 and 40 percent of power. We presume that certain nodes are compromised while others remain operational, equipped with IoT resources, whether it’s a battery with available energy or an EV or HVAC device that can be controlled,” Nair clarifies. “Thus, our algorithm assesses which households can contribute additional power generation to inject into the grid or reduce their demand to bridge the shortfall.”

In every scenario they examined, the team found that the algorithm successfully restabilized the grid and mitigated the attack or power outage. They recognize that establishing such a network of grid-edge devices will necessitate cooperation from consumers, policymakers, and local authorities, along with innovations such as advanced power inverters that allow EVs to feed power back into the grid.

“This is merely the initial step among many that must follow rapidly for the concept of local electricity marketplaces to be realized and expanded,” Annaswamy remarks. “Nevertheless, we feel it is a promising beginning.”

This research was partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the MIT Energy Initiative.