Power grid and stations

POWER GRIDDOE Invests $39 Million to Support a 21st Century Electric Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $39 million for projects across DOE’s National Laboratories to help modernize the electricity grid. The investments will support the development and deployment of concepts, tools, and technologies needed to measure, analyze, predict, protect, and control the grid of the future while incorporating equity and the best available climate science.
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POWER GRIDHow ERCOT Is Narrowly Getting Through an Extreme Summer — and How Experts Say It Could Do Better
By Emily Foxhall
Record-high power demand and faltering electricity sources have tested the grid in the past month, forcing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to dig deep into its toolbox to keep power flowing.
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POWER GRID & WILDFIRESShutting Off Power to Reduce Wildfire Risk on Windy Days Isn’t a Simple Decision – an Energy Expert Explains the Trade-Offs Electric Utilities Face
By Tim C. Lieuwen
Maui County is suing Hawaiian Electric, claiming the utility was negligent for not shutting off power as strong winds hit the island in the hours before the city of Lahaina burned. Electricity is critical infrastructure and a foundational bedrock to many other services, so utilities have to balance the risk of keeping power on with the risks created by shutting power off.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCEReached: Milestone in Power Grid Optimization on World’s First Exascale Supercomputer
By Jeremy Thomas
Ensuring the nation’s electrical power grid can function with limited disruptions in the event of a natural disaster, catastrophic weather or a manmade attack is a key national security challenge. Compounding the challenge of grid management is the increasing amount of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind that are continually added to the grid, and the fact that solar panels and other means of distributed power generation are hidden to grid operators.
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THE RUSSIAN CONNECTIONBaltic States Seek to Decouple Their Power Grids from Russia
Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are seeking to disconnect from an energy grid network shared with Russia and Belarus by early 2025. Vilnius is pushing from an earlier exit from the grid, which Tallin opposes.
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RESILIENCEBringing Resilience to Small-Town Hydropower
Using newly developed technologies, researchers demonstrated how hydropower with advanced controls and use of a mobile microgrid, can enable small communities to maintain critical services during emergencies.
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POWER GRIDSooner Than You Might Think: Virtual Power Plants Are Coming to Save the Grid
By Dan Gearino
Networks of thousands of home-based batteries could be key to a cleaner, more reliable electricity system. After years of pilot projects, utilities and battery companies now have networks with thousands of participants in California, Utah, and Vermont, among others.
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MICROGRIDS & WILDFIRESMicrogrids Can Help Communities Adapt to Wildfires
Wildfires have become increasingly frequent due to climate change, with record occurrences in areas not historically prone to them. For some of the most vulnerable communities, clean energy microgrids can be both more effective and cheaper than conventional technologies.
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ENERGY SECURITYRailways Could Be Key “Utility Player” for Backup Power
By Christina Nunez
The U.S. electric grid faces simultaneous, evolving pressures. Demand for power from the grid is increasing as people adopt electric cars and building energy is transitioned from gas to electricity. New research points to a flexible, cost-effective option for backup power when trouble strikes: batteries aboard trains.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCEFrustrated by Outdated Grids, Consumers Are Lobbying for Control of Their Electricity
By Emma Foehringer Merchant
Climate change is spurring interest in remaking local infrastructure to accommodate renewable energy, minimize power failures, and expand consumer choice.
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NEXTGEN POWER GRIDNorthwest Region-Wide Effort for the Next Generation Electrical Grid
Smart grids offer an important defense against climate change: smart devices improve energy efficiency and data and automation help keep grids stable, even if the share of renewable energy increases. They thus address the problem of short-term disruptions to solar and wind power, such as when clouds obscure the sun or winds die down.
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POWERGRID RESILIENCEMaking the Power Grid More Reliable and Resilient
By Jake Malooley
The U.S. power grid comprises nearly 12,000 power plants, 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines, 60,000 substations and 3 million miles of power lines. It may well be the most massive and complex machine ever assembled. Argonne National Labs’ researchers help keep this machine working in the face of daunting challenges.
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POWER-GRID RESILIENCEAI Can Predict Electricity Grid Loads from Road and Rail Usage Data
To satisfy demand and manage consumption peaks, electricity suppliers have to be able to predict grid loads. Researchers havedeveloped an artificial intelligence system capable of accurately anticipating grid loads from road and rail traffic data.
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TERRORISMTwo Men Sentenced in Plot to Attack Power Grids in the United States
Two men were sentenced in federal court Friday, 21 April, for crimes related to a scheme to attack power grids in the United States in furtherance of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism. DHS and the FBI have warned that domestic terrorists were increasingly focused on disrupting the U.S. power grid.
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ELECTRIC GRIDSUPER Technology Manages Intelligent Building Blocks for a More Reliable Electric Grid
As the United States transitions to cleaner energy and more U.S. consumers adopt electric vehicles, the grid is facing new power flow demands. Researchers are tackling this challenge by creating a new architecture to modernize the grid from the bottom up, starting with consumers and expanding to the entire power distribution system.
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