The past few years have brought a number of technological changes the power grid must contend with. Specifically, an increase in dual-purpose (heterogenous) sensing and actuating devices, the IoT, edge computing, and distributed systems in general have characterized the technological landscape.
What this has resulted in is a shift from centralized, inflexible power sources running on a unidirectional grid toward decentralized smart grids and microgrids. Looking only at solar, research shows an average year-over-year growth of 48% for the past decade.