Time to update Electrical Standards

8th August 2025

Open Loop: a load assumes there is infinite energy, no feedback for generation to know how much energy is needed. eg mains power

Closed Loop: a load REQUESTS a known number of watts. the source/generation knows how much energy is needed. eg USB, Power over Ethernet.

The NA Electrical grid runs on an Open Loop standard. It is from a simpler time when houses only had 6 items that ran on mains power. now we have 100 items including an electric car and solar panels.

Nobody wants to spend money updating a electrical grid that works…mostly.

Problems and Opportunities:
Current dumb grid can’t deal with large amounts of unpredictable power (read solar)
Grid hardware was designed for power flowing from generation to load. Rooftop solar breaks that model. Expensive upgrades required to gear that is working correctly 90+% of the time.

BiDirectional car charging is coming to mainstream, with the right hardware, you can run your house from your electric car battery.
Consumer solar prices are dropping and used gear is more available.

Inside the Home we can use standards like USB, PowerOverEthernet to power our increasing number of low voltage gadgets. When will our outlets have USB-C from a central source?

Outside the Home the Community Grid needs a feedback mechanism to delay large loads until more generation is brought online, and to decrease generation when solar generation is high.