POWER GRIDInitiative to Improve Power Outage Predictions and Grid Resilience
Researchers are working on a new initiative to better predict storm-related power outages, reduce restoration times, and strengthen the resilience of the electric grid.
Researchers at the University at Albany and University of Connecticut are working on a new initiative to better predict storm-related power outages, reduce restoration times, and strengthen the resilience of the electric grid.
The initiative, called the North American Forecasting Weather, Outage, Load & Damage Initiative, will create a scalable outage-prediction model to forecast system failures across the United States and Canada.
The forecasting model is the latest project to emerge from the Center for Weather Innovation and Smart Energy and Resilience (WISER). Backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, WISER was established in 2023 to apply the research and expertise at UAlbany and UConn to solve challenges related to energy systems, now and in the future.
Chris Thorncroft, director of UAlbany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and Emmanouil “Manos” Anagnostou, director of UConn’s Institute of Environment and Energy, are leading WISER for their respective universities.
“As the climate changes, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly disruptive and destructive,” Thorncroft said. “By combining high-resolution weather forecasts with real-world outage data from utilities, we believe we can create tools that help keep the lights on and improve power grid resilience. This represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration that has the potential to reduce economic impacts from severe weather across the country.”
“Anticipating storm impacts on the electric grid and its interdependent infrastructure would allow power utilities to work closely with state/local governments, communities and other stakeholders to take preemptive steps, such as requesting out-of-state assistance, increasing readiness of repair teams, as well as community energy, conservation, and coordination, to mitigate the effects of storm impacts,” Anagnostou said.
Smarter Power Grid Forecasts
The North American Forecasting Model will be a multi-year effort. The first phase will focus on local pilot regions, including New England, New York and California. Later phases will expand to regional areas along the east and west coasts, followed by a full North American rollout if additional funding is available.
The model will rely on UAlbany and UConn’s expertise in advanced weather models and artificial intelligence, combined with publicly available outage data, to improve system outage predictions over entire regions and help utilities more efficiently allocate resources before storms.
