A walk around Osaka’s Dotonburi district is an energetic affair. Rainbow-coloured mozzarella hotdogs are just one of the wacky things on offer. I enjoyed the iridescent cheese whilst taking in the neon lights.

These vivid lights inspired futuristic cityscapes in the Blade Runner films but to this day, they are powered by an electricity grid that has remained largely unchanged for over a hundred years. The same is true of grids the world over. However, we could be on the cusp of radical change.

Cities and authorities are grappling with how to power a clean, low-carbon future filled with electric mobility, homes and robotics. Trillions of connected devices and associated data centres could be consuming a fifth of global electricity by 2025.

In the developing world, more and more people will have access to electricity for the first time. There is also the prospect of greater demand for air conditioning as incomes (and temperatures) rise. All these factors add fervour to the collective scratching of heads.

Global annual electricity demand is predicted to increase by 57 per cent by 2050, compared with 2017. The UK’s demand at peak times in 2050 could be 42 per cent higher than today’s, according to the National Grid.

The challenge for the energy sector is not only to meet this future demand while decarbonising, but also to create a more flexible, resilient and efficient system in the process.

As well as betting big on hydrogen as a key solution for long-term interseasonal renewable energy storage, Japan is exploring decentralisation and digitalisation of the grid, through numerous projects, including in Osaka.

Decentralisaton comes full circle

Before large-scale electricity grids were rolled out in the 1900s, electricity started off local, and decentralised, with a patchwork of micro-grids operating across cities. Factories and housing estates had their own independent generators and cabling networks.

These isolated micro-grids were then integrated and centralised. Larger ‘utility-scale’ power stations served homes and businesses across whole cities, and could be situated many miles from where the power was used, due to the advent of Alternating Current (AC).

We may be coming full circle, then, if decentralisation initiatives today take root and spread – this time brought by advances in renewable energy technology, energy storage and the power of data, as opposed to Edison and his lightbulb.

Distributed Energy Resources

Decentralisation involves home-owners, small communities or businesses owning and operating electricity generation and/or storage assets largely for their own use.

These assets, or Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) as they are known in the sector, are growing year on year and include: solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines, and lithium-ion battery storage (e.g. in electric vehicles, e-bikes and e-scooters).