Metamorphosis: Grid 2.0 Emerging at the Edge of the World

Abstract: Were we to rebuild the power grid today, we wouldn’t build the one we have. We would build a resilient, non-hierarchical network, smart and adaptive at every node, with diffuse and multi-scaled power producers and consumers. If this is the Grid 2.0, can we find an evolutionary path to it? This profound complex systems problem no feasible adjacent possibilities for Grid 1.0 is typically solved by evolution through metamorphosis. Caterpillars become butterflies by breaking down the caterpillar system into its base components and reorganising (most of) them into a new butterfly system. But this can only be done in the quiet edges of the enveloping super-system Stewart Brand’s outlaw regions. We’re taking the first steps to metamorphose Rarotonga’s grid in the remote Cook Islands of the South Pacific. Here the conditions are just right. We invite collaboration to help realise our vision and its transpose lessons for the super-system’s centre. Citation: Bradbury, R., Popowich, F. (2014). Metamorphosis: Grid 2.0 Emerging at the Edge of the World. In: Campbell P. and Perez P. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Next Generation Infrastructure, 1-4 October 2013, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia.