Whereas in the traditional energy system, the most important decisions for ensuring a reliable supply were made manually in central control centers, the decentralization of the energy system leads to increasingly autonomous behavior at all levels.

More and more prosumers interact directly with other prosumers, aggregators, or local market platforms to optimize the energy supply, provide flexibility, and sell excess renewable energy. Active distribution grids monitor and predict their state also at the low-voltage level to intervene if needed.

These developments pose new research challenges. AI algorithms’ decisions must be reliable and even explainable for humans to enable the transition to trusted automated decisions. Cybersecurity must be ensured, also in a highly interconnected system.