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Going into 2050, Europe produces incredible quantities of electricity.
So how do we move it all to where it needs to be?
Long before Europe’s renewable electricity sector blossomed, engineers across the continent were scratching their heads.
An electrified Europe would have to efficiently transport a lot more electricity, they realised. Tension was rising on the grid.
The grid simply refers to all the infrastructure we use to move power. So, how does it work?
Imagine a landscape with wind turbines, solar panels, a nuclear plant, houses, and a factory. Instead of power lines, this “grid” is connected by a network of roads, like a small city.
The highway is wide and can handle heavy traffic. Ordinary streets are narrower, while a country road barely fits one car at a time.
To get every car to its destination, the road network requires the right infrastructure in the right place.
Let's add some traffic.
The little cars represent the electrons transported by the electricity grid. Like ourselves, they’re impatient to arrive at their destination without delay.
Like the power grid, our mini road network needs to process traffic—the electricity—efficiently to avoid traffic jams—net congestion.
The better this is done, the less energy is wasted in the process.
But there’s more.
At any moment, the energy that goes in must match the energy that goes out. In other words: energy production and energy consumption need to always be the same.
Any imbalance may lead to a blackout—a total loss of power.
To avoid these blackouts, grid operators need to constantly balance supply and demand, while managing traffic to avoid everything grinding to a halt.
This was a lot easier back when most energy came from a handful of fossil-powered plants.
Renewable energy fluctuates by the second and its sources are found all over the map.
As more variable energy entered the landscape, it became increasingly difficult to feed every power source into the grid while keeping the balance.
Using our metaphor: rather than a steady and predictable flow of traffic, renewable energy introduced eager motorists appearing from countless side streets, left and right.
The grid transformed from a small countryside town to Rome during rush hour. Improving the road network became the number one priority.
Not just within countries, but in Europe as a whole. Because connecting your grid with other countries—creating a super grid—solves two problems at once.
First, trading electricity with your neighbours helps balance the grid when your supply and demand are at odds.
Second, the super grid connects different places with different energy sources.
This is how a windless day in the North Sea can be compensated by sunshine in Germany, and vice versa.
European supergrid as imagined by SuperNode
As the European grid expanded, every corner of the continent linked up through large-scale transmission lines that you can imagine as super highways.
Additionally, countries started plugging in large-scale energy storage facilities to stock energy when it was plentiful, to cover for periods when it was scarce. Picture it like a parking garage in our mini world.
Are you starting to see it?
How all of these moving parts turned into a resilient grid that handles the ebb and flow of renewable energy and the electrified society we have become?