Electricity Distribution Patents: Top Companies & Trends 2026
- Concentrated at the top. The five leading assignees combined hold 35.0% of all 1,402 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees hold 43.9% — with a long tail of single- and few-filing entrants behind them.
- Filing is climbing, not cooling. Complete-year filings rose from 38 in 2021 to 53 in 2024, a 39% increase over that span; 2025-2026 figures are still filling in as publications catch up with filing dates.
- Power supply and grid systems dominate the claim space. H02J appears on 53.6% of the 1,402 records, more than three times the next largest subclass, meaning most new filings still have to work around dense core-grid prior art.
Filing growth compares 2021 (38 records) with 2024 (53) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 1,402 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What the electricity distribution patent record actually shows
The search set covers 1,402 published records filed against grid frequency, power dispatch, voltage profile, load forecasting, voltage regulation and frequency control claims tied to electricity distribution, spanning 2015 through the 2026 cut-off. Filing activity peaked in 2019 at 94 records and has continued at a meaningful pace since, with the most recent complete year, 2024, sitting well above 2021 levels. Because publication trails filing by roughly eighteen months, the 2025 and 2026 counts shown in the trend chart understate real filing volume and should not be read as a slowdown.
Reading the field by patent family rather than raw document count matters here: a single underlying invention can generate several published records through continuations or parallel jurisdiction filings, so family-level counts give a fairer picture of how many distinct inventions are actually competing for claim space in grid frequency and voltage regulation control.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 1,402-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which technical classes carry the bulk of the claim language.
A rising filing curve through the last complete year
Annual filings ran from 88 in 2017 to a peak of 94 in 2019, before rebuilding to 53 in 2024 — up 39% from the 38 filed in 2021. Treat 2025 and 2026 as incomplete rather than declining.
Grid control and measurement classes carry the field
H02J (power supply and grid systems) touches 53.6% of the 1,402 records, with G01R measurement and G05B control systems the next largest blocks at 15.5% and 10.1%. Because records can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100% and should be read against the 1,402-record total, not against each other as a closed pie.
Shares are the percentage of the 1,402 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Electricity Distribution Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about electricity distribution patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA recent grid-frequency claim worth reading closely
System for responding to frequency fluctuations in an energy grid (US12301004B2)
A method of controlling assets connected to an electricity distribution grid operating at a predetermined grid frequency is disclosed. Assets supplying or consuming electrical energy are configured to adjust energy flow in an aggregate response to frequency fluctuations, with individual adjustments combined to counteract a fluctuation in grid frequency across the group.Assigned to Centrica Business Solutions Belgium N.V., filed as a continuation-style grid frequency response claim.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20090281674A1 | Method and system for managing a power grid | 327 |
| 2 | US20130035802A1 | Power management device and system | 316 |
| 3 | US20090281673A1 | Method and system for managing a power grid | 301 |
| 4 | US20110288692A1 | Malicious attack detection and analysis | 254 |
| 5 | US20110092781A1 | Energetic modulation of nerves | 235 |
| 6 | US20130173807A1 | Energy service delivery platform | 233 |
| 7 | US20110208366A1 | Utility grid command filter system | 226 |
| 8 | US20070059986A1 | Monitoring electrical assets for fault and efficiency correction | 221 |
| 9 | US20100152910A1 | Power grid outage and fault condition management | 212 |
| 10 | US20110092880A1 | Energetic modulation of nerves | 196 |
Citation counts reward older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside this corpus — treat them as a signal of influence on later filers, not as a ranking of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the concentration, trend and citation data — useful for deciding where to file next and whose portfolio to watch.
A small group holds over a third of the field
The five leading assignees account for 490 of the 1,402 records in scope, and the ten leading assignees for 616. That leaves a long tail of the remaining ranked assignees and unranked filers holding single-digit counts each — a pattern typical of a field with an established core and many opportunistic entrants.
Filing rebuilt through the last complete year
After the 2019 peak of 94, annual filings dipped before climbing back to 53 in 2024 from 38 in 2021. Because 2025-2026 counts are still being published, this growth should be read as the field's real recent trajectory, not the visibly lower 2025-2026 bars.
Core grid-systems claims dominate the space
More than half of all 1,402 records touch H02J power supply and grid systems, meaning a new filer in that subclass is almost certain to face dense prior art. G01R measurement and G05B control classes sit far behind at 15.5% and 10.1%, suggesting comparatively more room to differentiate there.
Filing is US-anchored but genuinely international
The United States leads with 359 records, followed by Europe (EPO) at 206 and WIPO/PCT at 145, with the United Kingdom, India and Australia each in the 76-86 range. That spread indicates freedom-to-operate work needs to check multiple offices, not just the US docket.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to electricity distribution patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Leaders, collaboration patterns and where activity has gone quiet
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies scored by family count, led by a filer at 179 records with the fifth-place holder at 40 and tenth place at 22 — a steep drop-off that signals a concentrated core surrounded by a long tail.
The gap between first and tenth place is wide
The leading assignee's 179 records sit well above the fifth-place figure of 40 and the tenth-place figure of 22, meaning influence in this field is not evenly spread even within the ranked group — a handful of filers set the pace and everyone else follows at a fraction of the volume.
Most filing happens without a named co-assignee
Only ten recurring co-assignee pairings appear across the dataset, the strongest linking a global services firm with a named inventor across seven records. That scarcity suggests most electricity distribution filings in this set are filed solo rather than through joint ventures.
Several previously active filers show no latest-year output
A number of assignees that appear in the ranking, including firms with historical activity in this space, show zero filings in the latest tracked year. Given the 18-month publication lag, this is as likely to reflect pending applications not yet published as an actual pullback.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Accenture Global Services Limited | 0 | — |
| Reactive Technologies | 0 | -100% |
| Kona Medical, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Panoramic Power Ltd. | 0 | — |
| University College Dublin | 0 | — |
| General Electric Company | 0 | — |
| Faraday Grid Limited | 0 | — |
| CENTRICA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS BELGIUM NV | 0 | -100% |
Where to take this analysis next
The dataset points to specific follow-up questions rather than a single conclusion — these are the natural next cuts.
Check freedom-to-operate against the H02J core
With 53.6% of records touching power supply and grid systems, any new filing in that subclass needs a claim chart against the densest part of the prior art before drafting.
Run a claim comparison in EurekaTrack the assignees with zero latest-year output
Several ranked filers show no activity in the most recent tracked year; watching whether that reflects a pending pipeline or a genuine pullback matters for competitive monitoring.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaExplore the under-claimed branches directly
Sub-second frequency response and feeder-edge voltage sensing show comparatively thinner filing density than the core grid-systems claims — worth a dedicated white-space search.
Explore white space in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about this field
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies, with the leader holding 179 records and a steep drop to 40 at fifth place and 22 at tenth. That gap means the field has a small set of highly active filers surrounded by a much larger group of occasional filers, so competitive monitoring should weight the top handful more heavily than the rest of the ranked list. Family-level counts are the fairer basis for comparison since a single invention can generate multiple published records.
Complete-year data shows filings rose from 38 in 2021 to 53 in 2024, a 39% increase, after an earlier peak of 94 in 2019. The apparent dip in 2025 and 2026 is a publication-lag artefact — patents typically publish around eighteen months after filing — so those recent years should not be read as a genuine slowdown until more data fills in. On the evidence available, the field is rebuilding filing volume rather than cooling.
H02J, covering power supply and grid systems, appears on 53.6% of the 1,402 records in this dataset, making it by far the densest technical class. G01R electric and magnetic measurement follows at 15.5% and G05B control and regulating systems at 10.1%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these percentages are measured against the full record total and will sum to more than 100%, which is expected.
Relative to the dense H02J core, subclasses like G05F electric and magnetic variable control (5.3% of records) and combinations involving digital transmission (H04L, 7.0%) carry noticeably less filing density. Specific under-claimed branches include sub-second frequency-response aggregation and feeder-edge voltage-profile sensing, where fewer filings compete for claim space. A targeted novelty search in those branches is more likely to surface open claim territory than a general search across the core grid-systems class.
US12301004B2, assigned to Centrica Business Solutions Belgium N.V. and dated 2025-05-13, claims a method of configuring an aggregate response by a group of grid-connected assets to counteract grid frequency fluctuations, with individual asset adjustments combined at the group level. It sits squarely in the H02J and frequency-control claim space that dominates this dataset. Anyone developing aggregated demand-response or frequency-regulation systems should review its claim scope directly, since it represents recent, active claim language in a densely filed area.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.