This is an old revision of the document!


Welcome to the ISGAN Wiki

This wiki serves as a living platform advancing a dialogue, shared understanding and knowledge exchange on smart grid transitions. Building on diverse areas of expertise, the wiki helps the ISGAN community to speak with a unified voice while navigating different viewpoints. There are several ways you can engage with the wiki - read through the existing topics, suggest changes or even bring up your own topics using a common template.

34
Topics
27
Member Countries
20+
Contributing Authors
6
Working Groups

Explore topics
Browse 49 interconnected concepts shaping smart grid transitions worldwide.
Start exploring
Contribute
Add expertise, review a topic, or propose a new page using the topic builder.
Open topic builder
About the wiki
Learn how the wiki works, its editorial principles, and how knowledge is organised.
Read the guide

Explore the wiki topics

General Topics
Foundational concepts for understanding smart grid systems and their contexts.
Flexibility

The ability of the electricity system to manage variability and uncertainty across time scales.

Read more →
Digitalisation

How digital technologies transform grid operation, data flows, and market participation.

Read more →
Scenarios

Structured descriptions of plausible energy futures used to stress-test plans and strategies.

Read more →
Resilience

The capacity of energy systems to absorb disruptions and recover essential functions.

Read more →
Operability

The technical and operational conditions under which a grid can function reliably.

Read more →
Smartness

The degree to which an energy system can sense, communicate, and adapt in real time.

Read more →
Systems

Systems thinking and integrated approaches to understanding energy transitions.

Read more →
Risk

Measurable probabilities and consequences of adverse events in energy system planning.

Read more →
Uncertainty

Unquantifiable unknowns in long-term energy planning, policy, and technology trajectories.

Read more →
Wellbeing

How energy system design affects the health, comfort, and quality of life of people.

Read more →
Governance, Innovation & Change
Concepts for understanding how smart grid transitions are set up and orchestrated through governance, policy, and innovation.
Transitions

The long-term socio-technical processes through which energy systems transform.

Read more →
Governance

The structures and processes through which energy system decisions are made and coordinated.

Read more →
Innovation

The development and diffusion of new technologies, practices, and business models in energy.

Read more →
Innovation Policy

Policy frameworks that shape how innovation is supported, directed, and scaled.

Read more →
Decision-making

How choices are made under uncertainty in complex, multi-actor energy systems.

Read more →
Practice

How everyday routines and social norms shape energy demand and system change.

Read more →
Readiness

The degree to which technologies, organisations, and institutions are prepared for transitions.

Read more →
Regulatory Sandbox

Time-limited regulatory environments that allow innovation to be tested safely.

Read more →
Change

The mechanisms and conditions through which energy system transformation occurs.

Read more →
Technology

The role of emerging technologies as drivers and enablers of smart grid transitions.

Read more →
Transition Pathways

The routes and sequences through which energy systems move toward new configurations.

Read more →
Targets

Policy goals and commitments that shape investment and regulatory decisions.

Read more →
Replication & Scaling

How successful innovations spread from pilots to system-wide adoption.

Read more →
Institutions & Markets
Rules, norms, and market structures that shape investment, access, and service provision.
Institutions

The formal and informal rules, norms, and expectations that structure energy system behaviour.

Read more →
Regulation

Legal and administrative frameworks governing electricity market access and grid operation.

Read more →
Markets

The structures through which electricity and energy services are traded and priced.

Read more →
Flexibility Markets

Market mechanisms that procure and reward demand-side and distributed flexibility.

Read more →
Tariffs

Pricing structures for electricity services that allocate costs and shape incentive signals.

Read more →
Network Codes

Technical rules governing connection, interoperability, and grid operation standards.

Read more →
Commons

Shared resources and collective governance models in energy systems.

Read more →
Sector Coupling

Integration of electricity with heat, transport, and gas through cross-sector coordination.

Read more →
Service

Energy as a public and commercial service — access, quality, and provision frameworks.

Read more →
Actors & Stakeholders
The roles, relationships, and responsibilities of those who operate, use, and regulate the grid.
Actors & Roles

The organisations and individuals who operate, trade, and manage the electricity system.

Read more →
Stakeholders

Those with interests in how energy systems develop, from communities to investors.

Read more →
Users, Citizens, Consumers

The roles people play as users, customers, citizens, and prosumers in energy systems.

Read more →
Operator

System and network operators who maintain reliability and coordinate grid services.

Read more →
Grid Ownership

Who owns grid infrastructure and how ownership shapes investment and access.

Read more →
Energy Communities

Collective arrangements through which groups manage shared local energy resources.

Read more →
Virtual Power Plants

Aggregated distributed resources operated as a single coordinated market participant.

Read more →
Human Rights

Energy access and affordability as matters of rights, equity, and social justice.

Read more →
Balance Responsible Party

Actors accountable for balancing contracted and actual energy volumes in settlement.

Read more →
Organisations

The entities — utilities, regulators, cooperatives — that carry out energy system functions.

Read more →
Technology & Infrastructure
Physical and digital components, as well as information flows enabling smart grid functionality.
Energy Logistics

The movement, transformation, and coordination of energy across the supply chain.

Read more →
Infrastructure

The physical assets — cables, substations, meters — that underpin grid operation.

Read more →
Grid Edge

The distributed boundary of the grid where generation, storage, and demand interact.

Read more →
Grid

The physical and logical structure of electricity networks, from transmission to distribution.

Read more →
Energy Storage

Technologies and roles for storing energy across time to balance supply and demand.

Read more →
Grid Architecture

Frameworks for understanding grid structure across technical, logical, and policy layers.

Read more →
Point of Common Coupling

The electrical connection point where a distributed resource interfaces with the network.

Read more →
Blockchain

Distributed ledger technologies and their applications in energy trading and grid management.

Read more →