A critical societal SystemA set of Components that are formally related together by a ... Click for more that, in the case of GW-scale grids, exists to provide safe, reliable, and efficient ElectricityA form of Energy and set of physical phenomena that result f... Click for more services to millions of CustomersThe human individuals, families, organisations, institutions... Click for more.
The supply chain of a conventional Power System incorporates the Bulk Power SystemThe large-scale Generation Plant and other Energy Resources ... Click for more, Transmission NetworksThe High Voltage (HV) network that transports Power over lon... Click for more and Distribution NetworksA network that transports Electricity from the Bulk Supply P... Click for more supported by the related Energy Retail functions.
A GW-scale Power System is best understood as a ‘Super-system’ of structures. This is because a modern GridA generic term used to describe either the Power System as a... Click for more consists of a complex web of seven distinct, inter-dependent structures as follows:
a) Electricity Infrastructure (Power Flows)Infrastructures and subsystems that provide for the generati... Click for more;
b) Digital Infrastructure (Information/Data Exchange, Storage, and Processing)Infrastructures and subsystems that provide for all informat... Click for more;
c) Operational Coordination StructureInfrastructures and Subsystems that support the systematic o... Click for more;
d) Transactional StructureInfrastructures, Subsystems and formal processes that provid... Click for more;
e) Industry / Market StructureThe range of Entities involved in operating an end-to-end Po... Click for more;
f) Governance / Regulatory StructureThe range of Entities involved in the governance and regulat... Click for more; and,
g) Sector Coupling Structures (Gas, Water, Transport, etc)As decarbonisation advances, the proactive management of Int... Click for more.
Many of these cyber-physical-transactional structures are functionally interdependent, which means that changes to one structure will have both intended and unintended impacts on the function of other structures.