Renewable generation will comprise an estimated 50–80% of overall capacity in the coming decades, largely replacing aging thermal generation assets. This alone represents the most dramatic shift in the electricity sector since the advent of alternating current.

Customers are driving the transition to a decarbonized, distributed electricity system quickly and at scale: in the next 10 years, electricity end-users will spend a cumulative $830B on DERs and $7T on electric vehicles.

By 2030, roughly a third of global installed capacity will reside “behind the meter., representing an estimated 3.5 billion internet-connected DERs are expected to integrate with existing electric grids.

Everything about today’s electricity markets—from the rules governing asset qualification, to the way prices are set, to the systems used to monitor and manage the grid—assumes that supply is controllable, demand is fixed, and grid investment is a centralized function driven by grid operators. These assumptions are no longer valid.

Modern, low-carbon grids are inherently distributed, variable, and diverse. Investment in renewables, DERs, and electric vehicles is taking place in a naturally decentralized way; power can be generated and distributed locally as easily as it is across vast distances.

In our current environment, asset and customer information is fragmented across multiple siloed systems and is often invisible to grid operators. Consequently, many assets remain largely isolated from core system planning and operation functions, and DERs in particular are chronically underutilized and frequently fail to capture their full potential value.

Open, public, digital infrastructure will be as integral as physical infrastructure for the secure, reliable operation of a highly decarbonized and distributed electricity grid. Just as grid operators have built and operated the grid’s physical infrastructure over the past century, our vision is for grid operators to invest in, build, and operate digital systems that securely integrate millions and eventually billions of customer-owned DERs into core operation and planning functions.

Centralized architectures require a single party to maintain infrastructure, administer user roles and permissions, update and coordinate data across multiple discrete technical and organizational boundaries. In such architectures, data is duplicated across systems, increasing the risk of inconsistencies,and resulting in high costs and low trust.

As a result of these barriers, many assets remain largely isolated from core system planning and operation functions, and DERs in particular are chronically underutilized and frequently fail to capture their full potential value.

Just as grid operators have built and operated the grid’s physical infrastructure over the past century, our vision is for grid operators to invest in, build, and operate digital systems that securely integrate millions and eventually billions of customer-owned DERs into core operation and planning functions.

Based on business and technical requirements from the global energy community, the Energy Web Decentralized Operating System (EW-DOS) is a public, open-source stack of technologies (including the Energy Web Chain) for connecting customers, assets, and existing energy-sector IT and OT systems with energy markets and programs. EW-DOS can be applied in any regulatory context.

EW-DOS provides a universal, hardware-agnostic protocol for establishing digital identities for physical assets, customers, and organizations within a defined service territory, providing local stakeholders with a shared state of the attributes and operational capabilities of grid resources and participants. EW-DOS leverages self-sovereign digital identities, enterprise-grade data exchange and validation services, and integrations with legacy information technology (IT) systems to facilitate transactions between billions of assets, customers, grid operators, service providers, and retailers.

Improve interoperability between companies, systems, and assets with a simple and standard way to exchange and validate data securely.

Simplify enrollment and participation of all types of energy assets, from utility-scale renewables to electric vehicles to smart appliances.

Reduce overall IT costs by eliminating license fees and reducing integration burdens.

Enhance data privacy and regulatory compliance with consumer-oriented privacy regulations.

Lower the barriers to entry for new participants and enable more rapid innovation.