Guest Editorial: Special Section on Control Centers for the Evolving Power Grid: Architecture and Applications

The world-wide drive to decrease greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rapidly changing the mix of fuel resources that are used to generate electricity. The percentage of fossil fuels, especially coal, is declining while the percentage of renewable resources, like wind and solar, is increasing. The generation mix has always depended on the availability of different fuels in different regions, like the availability of hydro or the acceptability of nuclear power, and the recent changes also depend on this geography, like the radiance of the sun or the intensity of the wind. Although these changes will lead to different architectures in the evolving power grid, some trends are already being felt. © 2013 State Grid Electric Power Research Institute.