Designing Futures of Belonging and Thriving

Kay Aikin is a systems architect, artist, writer, and catalyst for regenerative design. Her work reshapes how humans belong to the living world—through innovation that centers community, nature, and lasting resilience.

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With a foundation in energy systems architecture, high-performance building design, and environmental advocacy, Kay blends technical expertise with human-centered vision. She has spent decades leading projects that bridge complex systems with simple, life-affirming principles: connection, regeneration, and thriving futures.

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She is the founder and CEO of Dynamic Grid, an energy controls and microgrid software company based in Maine, and a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme–Buildings Action Coalition. She also leads the Community Design Innovation Network (CDIN)—a global initiative reimagining how communities flourish within ecological boundaries

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Kay is a board member of the U.S. GridWise Architecture Council and the Microgrid Resources Coalition, and is a recognized authority in transactive energy systems, decentralized grid architectures, and human-centered climate resilience. Her writing, including the forthcoming book Connections–INOV8: Beyond the Edge of Envelopes, invites readers to explore a new kind of innovation—one that reconnects people to place, technology to nature, and power to possibility.

“The future we dream is not beyond our reach—it lives in the choices we make today.”

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Areas of Expertise

Systems Thinking for Regenerative Futures

Grid Modernization & Energy Transition

Microgrids & Transactive Energy Systems

High-Performance & Sustainable Architecture

Urban Resilience & Transition Engineering

Community Design for Human-Nature Belonging

 

Current Initiatives

Book: Connections–INOV8: Beyond the Edge of Envelopes (forthcoming)

Director: Community Design Innovation Network (CDIN)

Advisory Role: UN Environment Programme – Buildings Action Coalition

Speaking Engagements: UN HQ (May 2025), Trinity College Dublin (June 2025)

Thought Leadership Blog Series: Designing the Future

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Books, Invited Presentations and Publications

Aikin, Kay, Chapter 20 - The future of grid-interactive efficient buildings and local transactive energy markets, Editor(s): Fereidoon Sioshansi, The Future of Decentralized Electricity Distribution Networks, Elsevier, 2023, Pages 437-463, ISBN 9780443155918, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-15591-8.00022-X.

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Aikin, Kay, Integration of Grid Interactive Efficient Buildings into the Electrical Grid. (invited keynote presentation), High Performance Building Initiative Conference, United Nations Environment Programme-High Performance Building Initiative, Dublin, Ireland, June 27 , 2023

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Aikin, Kay, Grid Infrastructure Challenges: Microgrids and Transactive Energy Tariffs as the Solution (invited presentation), Microgrid 2023, Anaheim, CA, May 16, 2023

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Aikin, Kay, Free-market Competitive Equilibrium for Load Management and EVs (invited presentation), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Power and Energy Society, Grid Edge Conference, San Diego, CA, April 11, 2023

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Aikin, Kay, “The Future of Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings and Local Transactive Energy Markets”, book chapter - The Demand Side Revolution and the Emergence of New Electricity Business Models, edited by Fereidoon Sioshansi, publication June, 2023

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Aikin, Kay, INOV8: Beyond the Edge of Envelopes, publication 2024, (in development)

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Aikin, Kay, The Grid of the Future, Architecture, Technology and Regulation, International Renewable Energy Council, online. (invited presentation)  https://irecusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CGE-IREC_GridEdge_Future-State.pdf, April 23, 2021

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Aikin, Kay, "Business Models for Stakeholder Participation in the Future TE World," 2020 IEEE PES Transactive Energy Systems Conference (TESC), 2020, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/TESC50295.2020.9656938

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Aikin, Kay, Transactive Energy Ecosystem for Smart Buildings, Loads and Customer Systems, International Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Power and Energy Society, General Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, CN, (proceeding), August 5, 2020

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Johnson, Caryl, E., K Aikin., A Practical Approach in the Management of Dynamic Complex Systems, International Conference on Complex Systems, Boston, July 23, 2018 (proceeding)

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Aikin, Kay E., Autonomous Market-Based Grid Control, IEEE/PES, 2018 Innovative Smart Grid Technology Conference, Washington DC., (proceeding), February 21, 2018

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Aikin, Kay, Buildings and Edge Devices in a Transactive System, International Smart Grid Technology Conference, (proceeding), February 18, 2020

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Aikin, Kay, Transactive Energy for Grid Transformation, Israeli Ministry of Energy, (Invited Presentation) Tel Aviv, Israel, September 5, 2019

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Aikin, Kay, Emerging Energy Marketplaces-Transactive Energy Systems, Smart Electric Power Alliance, (webinar), September 3, 2019

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Aikin, Kay, The use of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence in re-imagining the Electrical Grid, International Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Women in Engineering Leadership Conference, (Invited presentation) Austin, TX, May 24, 2019

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Patents

Johnson, Caryl E., Aikin, Kay E., et al. Executable Graph Framework for the Management of Complex Systems,

US Patent 10,685,064 B2 (June 2020)

US Patent 9,946,809 B2 (April 2017)

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Professional Experience

Founder & CEO, Dynamic Grid
Senior Advisor, UNEP Buildings Action Coalition
Board Member, GridWise Architecture Council
Board Member, Microgrid Resources Coalition
President, Capital Custom Homes
Design Manager, American Dream Homes
Regional VP, Pennsylvania Builders Association
Founder, Designed Energy Independence
Business Development, Koa’e Ventures

 

Education

BS Energy Engineering (Sustainability)
Pennsylvania State University, 1987

 

Memberships & Affiliations

IEEE Power & Energy Society

Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA)

Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC)

Former: Seismological Society of America