Issue Who captures the value of distributed flexibility, and at what cyber risk, is unsettled

Summary

The Dubai Future Foundation outlook for everything-to-grid energy leaves a central question open, namely who will capture the value that distributed flexibility creates. The gains could flow to asset owners, aggregators, utilities or system operators, and the report does not predict which. Some utilities may have to shift from selling power to managing networks of distributed assets, competing on coordination rather than ownership of generation. Several brakes on adoption are named, including battery degradation, unclear revenue models and warranty risks. Cybersecurity is expected to become critical for the whole system as power networks, communications infrastructure and cloud platforms grow more tightly linked. The outlook frames the choice as whether energy develops into a shared system of resilience or a fragmented race for control and value.