Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)

In recent years, extreme weather events have severely affected the performance of the electric grid. Very large-scale events (VLSE) with potentially catastrophic impacts on the grid pose more than an inconvenience in today's electricity-driven lifestyle, and the frequency and severity of such events may continue to increase as a consequence of global climate change. This article summarizes the state of the art in leveraging distributed resources to improve resilience of the electric grid. It also highlights the technical questions that need to be addressed through additional research and development if the value of distributed resources is to be maximized.