Research

Power systems operate across a vast range of scales: from microseconds to decades in time, and from a single appliance to a continent in space. Keeping such a system reliable is an enormous coordination problem, and the number of assets involved is growing rapidly.

UTOPYS sets out to understand, in detail, how the physics of the grid, renewables, power electronics, the digital layer and markets interact, and what decisions taken at each timescale mean for the system as a whole.

The programme is organised into three research tracks: Mathematical Principles, Novel Control Strategies, and Policy, Markets & Regulations. Each track is headed by a research track lead, who sets its scientific strategy and coordinates with the other two tracks. They work with two co-leads and researchers from across the consortium, so every track combines complementary expertise from several institutions.

Mathematical Principles

Track lead: Prof. Dr. Bert Zwart (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica)
Co-leads: Prof. Dr. Michele Cucuzzella (University of Groningen) and Prof. Dr. Gabriel Lord (Radboud University)
Partners: Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, University of Groningen, Radboud University, Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente, Utrecht University

Classical power system analysis rests on simplifications (sinusoidal steady state, separation of timescales, deterministic behaviour) that the modern grid no longer respects. This track develops the needed mathematical principles to understand how the physics, renewables, disturbances, and markets jointly interact across all timescales.

M1: Dynamic stochastic surrogate models
A framework finer-grained than steady-state approximation but more tractable than full EMT simulation. UTOPYS provides the experimental data needed to develop, calibrate and verify high-dimensional stochastic processes for electromagnetic transients, including how the system responds to shocks and how those shocks interact.

M2: Stability criteria for self-organising complex systems
Power electronics make the grid strongly nonlinear, and controllers interacting over communication protocols amplify that. New stability criteria are needed that are theoretically verifiable. Open questions include cyber-physical dynamics, scaling effects, and how distributed decision-making under uncertainty affects stability.

M3: Blackout risk analysis in modern power grids
Higher renewable penetration makes blackout spreading more volatile, but most existing insight comes from static models. This work extends to dynamic models, uses physics-informed machine learning trained on UTOPYS data, and develops large-scale rare-event simulation to obtain probabilistic reliability guarantees, including the relationship between grid topology and robustness.

Novel Control Strategies

Track lead: Dr. Ir. Gerwin Hoogsteen (University of Twente).
Co-leads: Prof. Dr. Koen Kok (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Dr. Ing. Sergio Grammatico (Delft University of Technology)
Partners: University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, Delft University of Technology, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Control in a grid of millions of high frequency, independently deciding devices is a different problem from control of a few hundred power plants. This track builds novel control strategies that can keep up with a high frequency, distributed cyber-physical power system.

C1: Next generation WAMPAC
Wide-area monitoring, protection and control, rebuilt around real-time PMU and point-on-wave measurements. The missing piece is statistical procedure: detecting and localising a contingency as fast as possible, under communication delay, uncertainty and limited observability. The principles should transfer to other complex sensor networks such as weather, smart cities and earthquake monitoring.

C2: Real-time digital twins for predictive control
Predictive control and dispatch strategies driven by live data from a digital twin, enabling the grid to anticipate rather than react. Early experiments use UTOPYS itself as a brute-force twin; the longer-term goal is scalable twins built on the surrogate models from track M1.

C3: Strategically enhanced data and information layers
Digitalisation only helps if the information is governed well. This work determines what type, level and granularity of data sharing improves both market efficiency and grid management, while addressing cyber-security risk and the latency and integrity requirements of a stable supply of electricity.

Policy, Markets & Regulations

Track lead: Prof. Dr. Madeleine Gibescu (Utrecht University).
Co-leads: Prof. Dr. Leonie Reins (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Dr. Christina Papadimitriou (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Partners: Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente,  University of Groningen, Delft University of Technology, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica

Regulation adapts slowly; grid dynamics do not. The crosstalk between the two, how slow institutional decisions shape fast physical behaviour and vice versa, is poorly understood. This track investigates the mutual impact of policy, markets and regulations on the (fast) dynamics of power systems directly.

P1: Next generation policy and regulation
Validating future-proof adaptive regulatory frameworks for the energy system and market design, including concepts that are currently exotic but promising: packetisation of electricity, swarm organisation, or randomised algorithms to suppress oscillation in power-electronics-dominated systems. Decentralised decision-making, inclusiveness, fairness and transparency are of particular interest.

P2: Sustainable and safe network growth
Developing grid expansion practices that stay robust against random and targeted failures over decades, at optimal cost and net-zero emissions, with dynamic behaviour built into planning decisions rather than checked afterwards. One approach is to relate grid robustness to the topological concepts used in the study of random graphs, extended to account for the properties of power systems.

P3: Market design for system stability
Locational marginal pricing, peer-to-peer trading and other proposed market designs address congestion and renewable integration, but their effect on grid stability and infrastructure adequacy remains an open question. UTOPYS makes it testable, covering coordination between local and global markets alongside societal values such as fairness.

How the tracks connect

The three tracks are deliberately interdependent. Mathematical principles produce validated theories and models, which are the necessary input for control strategies. Because control couples continuous and discrete, physical and cyber, those results must be cross-validated back against the mathematics. And because none of this is purely technical, both tracks feed the policy and market work, ensuring that what becomes technically possible also becomes legally and economically viable. The reverse holds too: new societal models need mathematical principles and control strategies to establish whether they lead to feasible grid expansion, stable markets and equitable outcomes.