In their Grid Delay Case, the IEA also states that while investment in renewables has been increasing rapidly, almost doubling since 2010, global investment in grids has barely changed, and remains static at approx. USD 300 billion per year.  Meanwhile, they estimate that by 2050, IPPs may reach 48% of global electricity generation capacity. They say that grid length has almost doubled over the past 30 years, driven by the expansion of distribution networks. What is of huge concern is that they estimate that given the entrance of so many IPPs, 80 million kilometers of grids need adding or refurbishing by 2040 if we are to reach our net zero goals, and this is the equivalent length of the entire existing global grid. This is a monumental task and of such proportions that it is unlikely to be fully achieved. Other methods must be employed to mitigate grid congestion.

In their 2023 Global Electricity Review, Ember agrees. They say:  “Urgent work is needed to ensure wind and solar can be integrated into the grid: planning permissions, grid connections, grid flexibility, and market design.” ¹

Legislation and Storage

Governments are doing their best to bring in legislation that will ease the congestion, by insisting that IPPs also install storage. We have already referred to NEM3.0 in California, in our recent article about the Past, Present, and Future of Global Energy. Other countries are following suit. In Germany, the draft Federal Grid Expansion Act proposes that new PV systems exceeding 25 kW will have to integrate storage as soon as July 2024, while existing systems may face similar requirements in the future. In Italy, a 2023 law mandates that storage must be provided for new PV systems above 50 kW from January 2025. Additionally, existing systems exceeding 200 kW will have to be retrofitted with storage by 2029. In South Korea, the Renewable Energy 3020 Plan insists that new and existing larger PV systems that exceed 500 kW will have to integrate storage by 2025.

The problem is that storage by itself is not enough to sort out congestion. What compounds the problem is that many existing RE assets on the industrial scale were developed with legacy systems that lack connectivity and are unsuitable for dynamic control.

The IEA insists that grids do not only need to be larger, they need to be stronger and also smarter. ²  They continue that “Modern and digital grids are vital to safeguard electricity security during clean energy transitions. As the shares of variable renewables such as solar PV and wind increase, power systems need to become more flexible to accommodate the changes in output. In a scenario consistent with meeting national climate goals, the need for system flexibility doubles between 2022 and 2030. Grids need to both operate in new ways and leverage the benefits of distributed resources, such as rooftop solar, and all sources of flexibility. This includes deploying grid enhancing technologies and unlocking the potential of demand response and energy storage through digitalization.”

Navigating Solutions: Innovations in Grid Management and Renewable Integration

Smart Management

This is where the power of enSights comes into play. We provide smart management, not just of RE assets, but of storage and grid connections. We empower IPPs by allowing the energy they produce to be data-driven from production through to end-use. Simply put – this unblocks the bottlenecks.

If we compare the energy grid to the circulation system of the human body, you might think of grid congestion as being like a blocked artery. Using enSights to run RE systems is like doing an angioplasty on blocked arteries. Luckily enSights is far less invasive and costly.