All power comes from the sun. All life is dependent on energy. Clean, efficient energy is the holy grail of scientific endeavor. If we could harness the power of the sun in the palm of our electrical grids, then every other challenge of the human condition - poverty, disease, famine, war - would shortly fall thereafter. Access to energy is the bottleneck to our advance as a human species. There’s a reason the civilization type list is measured in our ability to manifest the power of the stars. 

As the world’s energy grids become more advanced, they must analyze, process and react to ever more data. A state of affairs which poses a major challenge to system operators and grid users. Substantial data exchange between smart systems deployed in energy grids needs to be managed just as effectively as the flow of electricity itself. The type of data, and devices they come from, are equally diverse. Although power grids rely on standardized schema, such as the IECs Common Information Model, in practice the energy ecosystem is fragmented with incompatible data formats and siloed systems. The world’s energy grids, even intra-national, are already a decentralized network that is spending decades working hard to modernize and sync, even in the face of legacy infrastructure challenges.

Disparate Data Architectures and Conflicts

A modern energy system may involve cloud databases, edge devices, and peer controllers all updating important values concurrently. Subsystems that have to manage things like energy load, generation, and switch status. Poor data writing and syncing between devices leads to inconsistent state updates, control mismatches, and - ultimately - mismatches. Effective synchronization and conflict resolution mechanisms between these multitude of disparate edge devices is essential for maintaining data integrity in distributed systems, especially offline-capable applications like those used in energy grids. 

Common methods include timestamps, where the most recent change is applied, use of version tags and last-write-wins. CRDTs, as Source Network’s DefraDB uses, are another way for local energy utility networks to function - be it a HAN (Home Area Network), BAN (Business Area Network) or NAN (Neighbourhood Area Network), all of which exist as local data domains within modern energy systems. Our tools are interoperable and built to manage data whatever the infrastructure environment. Our data translation tool, LensVM, ensures compatibility between structured data formats across the profusion of devices commonly found in an energy grid network. Our stack could homogenize the application output by substations across the grid and, with DefraDB, coordinate grid activities between disparate architectures and data silos.

Data Overload 

Power grids in the UK have suffered turbulence, with many going into administration. A key concern is data quality standards, with energy suppliers handling vast amounts of consumer data in a short space of time, often in different formats with different categorizations. This data overload, with smart meters receiving electricity data every 10 seconds, generates tens of millions of records daily. It creates a lot of data to process. There is a lot of unstructured data in the energy grid sector, and our stack can provide an interoperable baseline around which that data can be managed - be it consumer data or distributed energy devices (DERs) at the power plant. Interoperability with legacy systems is vital to effectively overhaul the legacy energy grid systems that exist, and Source’s modular stack is capable of that.

The Push Towards Local Processing

There is already a strong push towards a local processing approach to data at the grid edge at local substations and microgrids rather than overloading central clouds. Edge controllers in distribution networks are becoming standard for tasks like frequency or voltage control - tasks which require immediate attention and low latency. The added advantage of this local processing is the ability to keep sensitive energy grid data on-site and mitigate attendant privacy concerns, particularly in the wake of overly onerous regulation around data management. 

By focusing on edge-first designs and local power station utilities, it means that data availability uptime is increased and the data is always available when it's needed. This is particularly important when an energy grid is in “island mode” - power plants operating independently from a national or regional power network. This can be a grid powering an entire literal island or just a single homestead in a remote area. 

How Source Network Could Help Power Microgrids

Source Network’s tools could not only help build software to run these microgrids efficiently, but also to connect them up to a large proliferated network as and when required. Increasing the speed, ease, security, privacy and availability for data exchange between devices is what helps energy grids generate and allocate energy more efficiently. 

Although traditional grid control was hierarchical, the rise of DERs (distributed energy sources) means more opportunity for P2P and edge coordination and helping these grid devices exchange data directly at the field level. Devices like inverters, sensors, and protection relays could share states with one another without having to route everything back through SCADA.

It also creates potential for energy grids to island themselves in the case of outage and even ‘self-heal’. DefraDB, LensVM and SourceHub could be a foundational data management structure for an offline-capable energy app, introducing sophisticated sync logic for the devices in the network using CRDTs, and data auditing using SourceHub that can remedy any divergence that occurred while the grid was in Island Mode, whether through choice or emergency.  Source Network’s tools can further help build smart grids that maintain their wellbeing through Edge AI deployments, be it predictive maintenance for power infrastructure or real-time anomaly detection and outage prediction through local models. DefraDB is already AI-ready, bringing its verifiability, security and trust to data flowing through the local edge.

Why Auditability and Security of Data Matters

This is essential, because auditability of data in power infrastructure is of critical importance. Use of blockchain tech for auditing between tamper-proof nodes is seen as a powerful way to manage data in the energy industry. Grid data, market trades between supplies, power usage - all can be recorded with cryptographic security which guards against falsifying records. Sensor data can’t go directly onto a public ledger, of course, but DefraDB works with SourceHub to produce an audit log anchor as the database updates and syncs peer to peer and upstreams to any potential central cloud environment. 

Cybersecurity threats to energy grids have increased their surface threat vector due to the increased use of smart devices in energy grids. With state-sponsored attacks considered a critical threat to most countries’ national security, Source Network’s stack can deliver the auditability and verifiability that helps grids stay on track and come back online and remain resilient if the worst happens, while local data processing and practices reduce the potential damage a successful cyberattack can cause.

Compliance with Energy Regulation

A fully interoperable distributed data management stack for energy grids, suppliers, companies, and power plants would also help tackle the issue of data sovereignty and compliance. Privacy, data protection laws and regulations all impact how energy usage information can be shared with third party services, hindering access to energy data for IoT service providers. There is a need for collaboration between different energy providers and users, which has strict rules for how information can be shared. Developers must design systems with fine-grained access control and local data processing to help energy subsystems adhere to jurisdictional requirements, which can differ even within a country’s own borders. Field-level data access and granular Access Control Policies (ACPs) are fundamental to Source Network’s stack, allowing developers to scale systems fast even cross-jurisdiction while remaining compliant at all times.

The Sunlit Uplands

Improving the world’s energy systems is an easy sell. Nation states around the world invest constantly to update and improve their grids, making them smarter, more efficient and more robust. With our distributed data management stack, developers can build software that operate autonomously at the edge, capture structured energy data in real time, manage local application states across microgrids, and better connect those grids to a global network - all while improving resilience in the face of failure. 

Data flows through the grid like electricity, and harnessing it is just as vital for the effective operation of the grid as the power itself. The sun is the source of life, and Source Network is the path to harness it.