An electrical grid with discrete energy levels

In the face of power fluctuations and exacerbated by the intermittent nature of newly introduced renewable resources, grid instabilities as a result of discrepancies between power production and demand are of grave concern. Right now, the electrical grid is an analog system that only retroactively reacts to power fluctuations (namely, looking backward) while attempting to maintain stability of continuous power values of both generation and demand at all times (namely, looking forward). Random power fluctuations are hard to predict, yet their span limits may be assessed with some confidence level ahead of time. Here, the analog nature of the power grid is replaced by a discrete pattern of energy levels to which both generators and loads adhere. One may envision a set of discrete power switches that turn the continuous load impedance to a discrete value set. The grid is also supplemented by local, short-term energy storage units (STESU) to buffer the effect of the random fluctuations. Within the framework of a randomly perturbed Markovian chain and under reasonable assumptions, we show that this type of a grid can maintain stability (meaning, a constant difference between supply and demand) despite unpredictable energy fluctuations.