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ELECTRIC GRIDPlanning the Future of America’s Vast Electric Grid
America’s electric grid is one of the largest and most complicated pieces of infrastructure ever built. It is intended to deliver electricity nearly 100% of the time in any situation. And it will soon be called upon to accommodate renewables and more electric demand.
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POWER GRIDAn Electric Grid that Thinks Ahead
The reliability of the power rid depends on utility operators who have developed control systems and fail-safes to keep the power flowing. PNNL researchers point toward a smart grid that includes machine learning and artificial intelligence inputs, but with human expertise in the loop.
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GRID RESILIENCETransformers: Cooler Side of the Grid
Failures in transformers cause widespread disruptions across electrical networks, severely affecting grid stability. The financial impact of such failures often goes beyond just the cost of replacing the transformer. Simulations on NSF-funded Stampede2 provide models for a resilient and sustainable electric grid.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCEStartup Aims to Transform the Power Grid with Superconducting Transmission Lines
VEIR, founded by alumnus Tim Heidel, has developed technology that can move more power over long distances, with the same footprint as traditional lines.
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GRID RESILIENCEBringing GPT to the Grid
Much has been discussed about the promise and limitations of large-language models in industries such as education, healthcare and even manufacturing. But what about energy? Could large-language models (LLMs), like those that power ChatGPT, help run and maintain the energy grid?
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCERevolutionizing Energy Grid Maintenance: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming the Future
Scientists are leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to transform energy grid asset maintenance, helping U.S. power companies identify and address problems before they even occur, helping to ensure the security and reliability of America’s energy infrastructure.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCEAmerica’s Grid Isn’t Ready for a Renewable Future. A New Federal Rule Could Change That.
America’s energy system has a problem: Solar and wind developers want to build renewable energy at a breakneck pace, but too often the power that these projects can produce has nowhere to go. That’s because the high-voltage lines that move energy across the country don’t have the capacity to handle what these panels and turbines generate. At the same time, electric vehicles, data centers, and new factories are pushing electricity demand well beyond what was expected just a few years ago.
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GRID RESILIENCEResilient Power Systems in the Context of Climate Change
As extreme weather events increase in frequency and society’s dependence on electricity grows, scientists are focusing on issues at the nexus of water and energy, recognizing that water and energy systems are strongly coupled and already stressed.
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POWER GRIDIn the Central U.S., an Electric Grid Bottleneck Persists
Forty-five million people live in the area managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the organization that runs a massive portion of the North American electric grid running from Manitoba, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico. Where the northern part of the system meets the southern end — a narrow corridor that traverses a corner of southeast Missouri and northeastern Arkansas — there’s a bottleneck that can hurt electric customers and create major inefficiencies on both sides of the divide.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCECould April’s Eclipse Impact the Power Grid? Energy Expert Says Not to Worry
On April 8, a total solar eclipse will be visible across parts of North America, following a narrow track from Mexico through the U.S. and all the way to Canada. There have also been concerns about how the eclipse might impact areas that rely on solar power along the way.
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ENERGY SECURITYAllowing More Juice to Flow Through Power Lines Could Hasten Clean Energy Projects
If the thousands of proposed solar, wind and battery energy projects got built, they would more than double the amount of electricity that is currently produced nationwide and get the U.S. much closer to its clean energy targets. But there’s one big problem: America’s power lines can’t carry that much juice. Grid-enhancing technologies can help existing lines carry more electricity.
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POWER-GRID SECURITYScientists Put Forth a Smarter Way to Protect a Smarter Grid
Proliferation of programmable devices presents more gateways for cyberattack. That makes the electric grid, increasingly chock full of devices that interact with one another and make critical decisions, vulnerable to bad actors who might try to turn off the power, damage the system or worse.
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RESILIENT POWER GRIDCreating the Self-Healing Grid of the Future
Self-healing electrical grids: It may sound like a concept from science fiction, with tiny robots or some sentient tech crawling around fixing power lines, but in a reality not far from fiction, a team of researchers is bringing this idea to life. What’s not hard to imagine is the potential value of a self-healing grid, one able to adapt and bounce back to life, ensuring uninterrupted power even when assailed by a hurricane or a group of bad guys.
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POWER GRIDUsing Idle Trucks to Power the Grid with Clean Energy
After analyzing energy demand on Alberta’s power grid during rush hour, researchers propose an innovative way to replenish electrical grids with power generated from fuel cells in trucks. Idled electric vehicles can act as mobile generators and help power overworked and aging electricity grids.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCESmart Microgrids Can Restore Power More Efficiently and Reliably in an Outage
It’s a story that’s become all too familiar — high winds knock out a power line, and a community can go without power for hours to days, an inconvenience at best and a dangerous situation at worst. Engineers developed an AI model that optimizes the use of renewables and other energy sources to restore power when a main utility fails.
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