Current substation architecture is outdated and inflexible. Virtualization technology is a step toward a modern, data-driven power grid that will be more nimble and resilient in the face of rising outages.
Extreme weather events such as prolonged heatwaves and winter storms are increasingly impacting electrical grids in their present state. Over the past 20 years, there has been a 67% increase in power outages from weather-related
events, according to analysis by Climate Central1 . The aging grid, mostly built in the 1950s, is a major contributor to these outages.
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), which could make the grid more resilient to these impacts, cannot be orchestrated using existing technology. The vast amounts of data that can be generated by the grid is not easily collected and shared across the landscape This limits centralized management systems and makes it challenging for operators to accurately estimate and react to the changes in electricity demand as well as to minimize disruption during extreme weather events.