For more than a century, electricity has flowed in one direction: from large central power plants, down transmission lines and into homes and businesses. That model is breaking down.
Solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, batteries and bi-directional charging electric vehicles are no longer just add-ons to the system. These distributed energy resources — or DERs — are reshaping how electricity is produced, consumed and balanced.
When connected, DERs can act like miniature power plants. They regulate frequency, support voltage, shave peaks and even provide backup supply in emergencies. Aggregated into Virtual Power Plants (VPP) or managed through microgrids, they offer flexibility that centralized generation alone cannot.
But weaving together thousands — and soon millions — of these devices is no simple task. Without coordination, the potential of DERs risks turning into instability.
The need for integration has never been greater. Across the world, power systems are straining under the weight of rapid change.
Renewables introduce variability that pushes grids beyond their original design. Legacy infrastructure often relies on outdated protocols, poorly suited for modern digital assets. At the same time, the electrification of transport and heating is accelerating electricity demand.
Cybersecurity adds another layer of complexity. Every inverter, battery, or charging station connected to the grid expands the potential attack surface. A stark reminder of the stakes is the 2015 cyberattack on Ukraine’s power grid, where hackers used malware to disrupt electricity supply for hundreds of thousands of people for several hours. In today’s digital energy systems, outages are not just technical failures — they are potential security threats.
Without seamless integration and robust cybersecurity measures, distributed energy resources (DERs) could create as many problems as they solve.
India is one of the clearest examples of both challenge and progress. The country is deploying renewables at record speed, forcing operators to rethink how the system is planned and balanced. Large-scale integration studies have become central to this effort. Forecasting, flexibility, and better coordination between balancing areas is helping India absorb ever greater shares of solar and wind — without sacrificing reliability.
The United Kingdom offers a different perspective. Today, the country generates more power from renewables than from fossil fuels. Yet its “supergrid,” designed in the 1950s for steady coal and gas, is creaking under the strain of decentralization.
Connection queues worth hundreds of billions of pounds show how demand for clean energy has outpaced infrastructure. New digital tools, from AI-based forecasting to virtual grid replicas, are now being deployed to make the transition possible.
China highlights the integration challenge at a different scale. According to Global Energy Monitor, solar and wind capacity in China has already exceeded 1,300 GW, creating grid bottlenecks and curtailment issues. Massive investments in ultra-high voltage transmission lines, energy storage, and market reforms show that scaling renewables alone is not enough — system flexibility and smarter coordination are indispensable.
Together, India, the UK, and China prove that DER integration is not optional. It is the foundation for delivering on decarbonization promises.
Meeting this challenge requires intelligent control systems that can unify diverse resources into one coherent framework. This is where COPA-DATA’s zenon platform plays a decisive role.
The zenon platform speaks the many languages of the grid. Supporting standards such as IEC 61850, OPC UA, Modbus, and DNP3, it enables solar parks, wind farms, batteries, and EV chargers to share data without extra layers of translation. That makes it possible for operators to manage them all from a single control system. Real-time monitoring and advanced analytics also give operators a clear view of conditions, helping them anticipate issues and optimize performance.
And underpinning it all is security. With authentication, encryption and anomaly detection at its core, zenon takes a cybersecurity-by-design approach — a necessity in an era when a hacked charger or inverter can trigger far-reaching disruption.
DER integration is about more than solving today’s challenges. It is about shaping the energy networks of tomorrow.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning promise sharper forecasts. Sector coupling will merge electricity, heat, mobility and hydrogen into one ecosystem. And prosumers — households and businesses that generate their own power — will become active market participants.
The future grid will be both centralized and decentralized, combining oversight with autonomy. Systems will be self-organizing and resilient, capable of adapting to real-time changes with unprecedented flexibility.
The energy transition demands more than renewable generation. It demands integration. From India’s vast solar parks to the UK’s congested connection queues, the global lesson is clear: connecting DER to centralized control systems is essential to building a smarter, cleaner and more secure grid.
With platforms like zenon, operators have the tools to meet that challenge — and to ensure the grid of the future is not only sustainable, but reliable and resilient.
Detailed insights into the zenon software platform you can find on our website.