Energy securityUpgrading the U.S. grid
As society moves toward an increasingly connected world, keeping the U.S. electrical grid reliable and safe from hackers and other potential security threats has perhaps never been more crucial. The Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative aims to deliver fundamental knowledge, new concepts, tools and data to support the nation’s journey to modernizing the electric power system infrastructure. Enhanced grid security, grid flexibility via energy storage and improved economic competitiveness are key outcomes of this initiative.
U.S. electrical grid is in need of upgrading // Source: theconversation.com
As society moves toward an increasingly connected world, keeping the U.S. electrical grid reliable and safe from hackers and other potential security threats has perhaps never been more crucial.
To address this challenge, in November 2014 the Department of Energy (DOE) established the Grid Modernization Initiative (link is external) (GMI), a DOE-wide collaboration that gets funding support from the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (link is external) (OE), the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (link is external) (EERE), and the Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (link is external) (EPSA). The initiative aims to deliver fundamental knowledge, new concepts, tools and data to support the nation’s journey to modernizing the electric power system infrastructure. Enhanced grid security, grid flexibility via energy storage and improved economic competitiveness are key outcomes of this initiative.
“We are working on building a platform of tools and technologies to help industry and grid operators to develop the grid of the future,” said Kevin Lynn, GMI co-chair and director of Grid Modernization for EERE. “We are working holistically — not just on new technologies — but also on core topics like interoperability, valuation and modeling that will help propel early stage development of grid modernization.”
LLNL says that atotal of 87 grid modernization projects are distributed throughout the Energy Department’s national laboratories and institutions, through the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (link is external) (GMLC), a partnership involving 13 DOE national laboratories. Three of these projects, considered foundational and addressing the resiliency of the electric power grid, are being led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory but involve numerous industry partners, academic institutions, vendors and utility companies. In all, LLNL researchers are involved in 16 projects under the GMLC banner.
