The ambitious goal of SAFEr Grid (Store-and-Forward Energy Grid) is to develop the foundations for a stable, resilient, efficient, and scalable power grid in an era of fully carbon-neutral, highly volatile, and distributed energy generation and consumption. SAFEr Grid’s interdisciplinary team of principal investigators comprises Klaus Wehrle (COMSYS), his RWTH colleagues Antonello Monti (ACS, EE Department) and Frank Piller (TIM, School of Business and Economics), as well as Frede Blaabjerg (Power Electronics, AAU Energy) from Aalborg University.
Although electricity supply has been reliable for several decades, the grid today faces growing challenges due to increasing electrification of industry, mobility, and thermal processes. Concurrently, the share of volatile, renewable energy is rising, and the mechanical inertia that once provided an instantaneous energy reserve is gradually being lost. Because today’s power system is rigidly coupled to a global synchronous frequency—and thus requires synchronous power balancing—stability and reliability may be at risk as we approach carbon neutrality.
SAFEr Grid will develop a new theory, architecture, and operating principle for power systems. A fundamental paradigm shift will remove the requirement for synchronicity by introducing decoupled, asynchronously operating subgrids capable of balancing energy asynchronously. SAFEr Grid aims to offer a blueprint for a sustainable grid that is stable, scalable, and incrementally deployable, making full use of existing infrastructure.
The SAFEr Grid team seeks to create an innovative architecture for future grids, distinguished by asynchronous coupling and a store-and-forward principle. Inspired by the Internet’s successful architecture and distributed operating model, COMSYS will contribute expertise in Internet architecture, decentralized and secure coordination, and IT/cybersecurity to the project.
SAFEr Grid is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under its Synergy Grant program, one of Europe’s most prestigious research funding initiatives. Established by the European Commission to support groundbreaking frontier research, the ERC enables awardees to undertake high-risk, high-gain projects tackling global challenges. Beyond its Synergy Grants, the ERC offers Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants for researchers at different career stages. Under the Synergy Grant scheme, the ERC supports proposals by teams of two to four principal investigators aiming to solve highly ambitious, interdisciplinary research challenges.