Red Hat at Distributech 2026

Secondary equipment will be the major innovation driver of utilities, as most novel business models rely on data and algorithms that require massive computational power to generate value, be it classical protection algorithms or modern AI. Planning, building, operating and maintaining these computational technologies requires different skill sets in addition to the already complex and diverse tasks of grid engineers. The grid thus needs to become open to specialists of other professions, and the only way to do so is by separation of concerns. The whole industry needs to rethink its approach to secondary equipment if it wants to be able to adopt new technologies with the necessary rigor and speed. Fortunately, we’re not alone: The same shift has happened in other industries such as telco, banking, and IT, such that we can learn from them and try to avoid common pitfalls. In this talk we want to explore how these industries changed from box-centric to functionality-centric thinking and which technologies and approaches helped achieve that. We examine how these learnings can be applied to the special needs of the grid and shine a light on the state of the art of computing technologies for the grid today and in the near future.