PowerWeb Institute

The electrical power infrastructure is rapidly changing due to the growing use of distributed renewable sources and is becoming increasingly complex to manage. Today's electricity market requires an infrastructure for flexible, reconfigurable smart grids that can facilitate the producer and consumer in their changing needs. Future electricity grids ask for a multi-layered ICT approach in order to become robust. And need to be embedded in society as a socio-technological system in itself. 

In search of integral solutions for this changing energy market, three faculties at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) joined forces in the PowerWeb initiative. Their view on smart grids research comprises the integrated study of the underlying physical systems (hardware), the design of smart energy management systems (software), and the study of smart grids in relation to their societal and economic environment (peopleware). This allows the modelling and design of systems that integrate energy production and consumption services in a robust way.