An information-centric energy infrastructure: The Berkeley view

We describe an approach for how to design an essentially more scalable, flexible and resilient electric power infrastructure – one that encourages efficient use, integrates local generation, and manages demand through omnipresent awareness of energy availability and use over time. We are inspired by how the Internet has revolutionized communications infrastructure, by pushing intelligence to the edges while hiding the diversity of underlying technologies through well-defined interfaces. Any end device is a traffic source or sink and intelligent endpoints adapt their traffic to what the infrastructure can support. Our challenge is to understand how these principles can be suitably applied in formulating a new information-centric energy network for the 21st Century. We believe that an information-centric approach can achieve significant efficiencies in how electrical energy is distributed and used. The existing Grid assumes energy is cheap and information about its generation, distribution and use is expensive. Looking forward, energy will be dear, but pervasive information will allow us to use it more effectively, by agilely dispatching it to where it is needed, integrating intermittent renewable sources and intelligently adapting loads to match the available energy.