At the Intersection was the title of our conference at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, which explored the electrical grid as 1) a technological intersection in the broader energy system, 2) a social intersection that relates various actors in different ways, and 3) an epistemic intersection that constitutes an interdisciplinary object of knowledge.

For two days, researchers from different disciplines, practitioners in the energy field, and policymakers gathered in the TaC (Theaterwerkstatt am Campus) to discuss recent developments pertaining to the advancing decentralization of energy generation and the concomitant digitalization of the grid, where the three aforementioned aspects intersect in novel ways. Taking a socio-technical approach to the digitalization of electricity generation and the grid, the conference aimed to highlight the inextricable linkages between technical developments and social practice, whose complex dynamics cannot be reduced to one side or the other.

Electrical grids are generally understood as the infrastructure that forms the backbone of the modern, energy-intensive way of living. As such, they are material structures that operate "below" everyday experience and facilitate the movement of electricity between different points in space. Infrastructure, American sociologist Susan Leigh Star once contended, frequently goes unnoticed until it ceases to function, as it possesses a "normally invisible quality" (Star 1999, 382). Various social scientists have since either revised or challenged this enormously influential claim (Larkin 2013; Lennon 2025; Schwenkel 2015). Despite this, we think that the focus Star initiated on infrastructure’s visibility remains useful for considering the current situation of the electrical grid.

When they first emerged in the 19th century, electrical grids were a spectacular and highly visible form of infrastructure (Nye 1997). This was quite literally the case owing to their initial purpose of providing electricity for illumination. Yet over several decades many residents of the Global North came to take their grids, vital pieces of infrastructure, for granted, as in Star’s terms they became invisible. For most people electricity simply "comes from the socket." Now, though, with increased concerns around energy prices and anthropogenic climate change, these large socio-technical systems are once again becoming more visible to the public.

It is within this context that our conference wanted to explore the perspectives of academics, policymakers, and practitioners on the changes that electrical grids are currently undergoing, specifically focusing on the relationship between decentralization of energy generation and digitalization (cf. Sareen and Müller 2023). If conference attendees’ diverse accounts of grids and their digitalization could be characterised by one word, it would not have been infrastructure but rather infrastructuring. The former, a noun, is a remarkably placid word suggesting that matters have been concluded or resolved, while the latter, a verb, suggests an eternal ongoingness that makes things visible.

The complexities that arise from infrastructuring were particularly evident in the two keynote presentations that set the stage for our interdisciplinary discussions. In the engineering and informatics keynote, Andreas Ortwein from Merseburg University of Applied Sciences presented how the German energy transition is fundamentally changing grid operation: distribution grid operators now increasingly face the tasks of maintaining stability and reliable supply while integrating decentralized, variable renewables and new technologies such as energy storage and smart-grid solutions, and the phase-out of fossil plants concurrently increases the need for advanced forecasting, control systems, and flexible grid management.

Brit Ross Winthereik, our social science keynote speaker from the Danish Technical University, offered considerable insights based on her recent fieldwork into the complexities of creating hyperscale data centres — those centres providing servers for cloud computers. The Jevons paradox refers to the possibility that increasingly efficient usage of a resource may result in even greater usage. This has become a matter of increasing concern as the same sort of AI designed to model and help manage increasingly complex decentralised grids also requires the creation of data centres (cf. Dalsgaard 2022). Such centres have a transformative impact on the surrounding landscape, terraforming it. Winthereik described how Denmark’s quest to become a leader in such data centres led to their appearance in a post-industrial Danish settlement and the reactions of the residents to their presence, strikingly illustrating the socio-technical nature of grid-related infrastructuring.

The presentations in our engineering and informatics panel covered topics ranging from algorithmic decision-making in energy trading to the design of a suitable framework of neural networks that reliably detects critical states in the low-voltage power grid. Other contributions highlighted the role of advanced modelling and control strategies for microgrid systems and the increasing need to implement holistic security concepts against sophisticated cyberattacks following from the growing importance of data to the infrastructuring of the smart grid.

With a more pronounced emphasis on the practical application of energy-system innovations and the role of governmental regulation, the talks in our public policy panel encompassed the presentation of a simulation-based tool for the optimization of electric charging infrastructures, a political assessment of the requirements for a new legal framework that facilitates the digital energy transition without compromising demands of data security, an overview of the current state of digitalization of the buildings sector in Germany, which becomes more important for communicating with the grid and for better energy efficiency within buildings, and finally a discussion of the potentials and challenges of using three-dimensional geodata as a tool for intelligent energy supply.

Reflecting on the societal effects of such innovations and their concrete implementation, our social science panel dealt with possible transformations of governance regimes, everyday practices, and understandings of citizenship related to the transition to a smart grid, explored questions of energy justice in the digital-energy nexus of South Africa’s "Silicon Cape," discussed the performative power of visions of "intelligent grids" to shape social realities, and analyzed the potential vulnerabilities of an energy system that relies heavily on the integration of virtual power plants.

Such complexities will doubtless be a continual feature of posts in this blog as we continue to explore aspects of the decentralisation and digitalisation of the electrical grid.