Decentralized Coordination through Digital Technology, Dynamic Pricing, and Customer-Driven Control: The GridWise Testbed Demonstration Project

The project highlights the idea that technology-enabled decentralized coordination can achieve the same, or better, economic and reliability benefits when compared to utility-focused centralized physical and economic control. Among the design’s unique features was a retail double auction with five-minute market-clearing intervals that included residential customers as direct, active market participants.