-
Predicting Power Failures Which Could Lead to Wildfires
Imagine a tool that can discover problems on utility lines before outages, before power failures spark deadly wildfires, or before fears of wildfires prompt massive, pre-emptive power outages such as those suffered recently by millions of Californians. Well, the tool exists. It is available today. And it works.
-
-
Developing Digital Twin for Electricity Grid to Ease Transition to Renewables
The rapid transition to renewable energy threatens to cause major problems to the very expensive electricity grid in the Netherlands. Researchers are now working on a “digital twin” to make it possible to study the grid effectively.
-
-
Grid Reliability under Climate Change
Researchers are using a new modeling approach for infrastructure planning of a long-term electricity grid that considers future climate and water resource conditions. Those conditions include reduced hydropower production as well as reduced availability of cooling water due to reduced streamflow and increased streamflow temperature.
-
-
Device Helps Building “Negotiate” with Power Grid during Peak Demand
Like its name suggests, Intelligent Load Control (ILC) technology is a smart tool for automatically managing electricity loads in buildings, particularly at times when the power grid needs help with meeting broader demand.
-
-
Enhancing the Reliability, Resilience of the U.S. Power Grid
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers will lead two new projects and support seven more to enhance the reliability and resilience of the nation’s power grid as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2019 Grid Modernization Lab Call. DOE announced funding of approximately $80 million over three years to fund 23 projects across the country.
-
-
New Clues Show How Russia’s Grid Hackers Aimed for Physical Destruction
For nearly three years, the December 2016 cyberattack on the Ukrainian power grid has presented a menacing puzzle. Two days before Christmas that year, Russian hackers planted a unique specimen of malware in the network of Ukraine’s national grid operator, Ukrenergo. Just before midnight, they used it to open every circuit breaker in a transmission station north of Kyiv. The result was one of the most dramatic attacks in Russia’s , an unprecedented, automated blackout across a broad swath of Ukraine’s capital. In an insidious twist in the Ukrenergo case, Russia’s hackers apparently intended to trigger that destruction not at the time of the blackout itself but when grid operators turned the power back on, using the utility’s own recovery efforts against them.
-
-
Boosting Energy Security: Lessons from Post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico
It took nearly a year for the government-run Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which is the only power company in Puerto Rico, to restore electricity throughout the island. This was the biggest and longest power outage in U.S. history.As scientists suggest that weather will probably become more extreme and weather-related natural disasters are likely to intensify in the coming decades,we can learn some valuable lessons from what Puerto Rico has gone through in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
-
-
Risks Grow as Countries Share Electricity Across Borders
Increasing interconnection of electricity systems both within and between countries has much promise to help support clean energy power systems of the future. If the sun isn’t shining or wind isn’t blowing in one place, an electricity grid with high voltage transmission lines can move electricity to where it is needed. This shared infrastructure and increased trade can possibly serve as a basis for peace between neighbors in conflict, but it may also serve as a tool of coercion if the electricity can be cut off by one party.
-
-
Optimizing use of future wave electricity generators during disaster
When hurricanes strike, loss of electricity ranks as one of the top concerns for relief workers. Blackouts lasting a week or more can hamper recovery efforts, shutter hospitals, threaten public health and disrupt transportation. The months-long effort to restore power to Puerto Rico following the 2017 hurricane season has led to renewed interest in finding innovative ways to get affected power grids back online. Researchers look to develop a strategy for how floating devices that harness the energy of the oceans’ waves might be able to provide this much needed aid.
-
-
Vulnerable grid: Argentina's nationwide blackout
Blackouts which affect an entire country are incredibly rare – but one just hit Argentina on Sunday. Since April, an electricity transmission connection between two power plants in Colonia Elia and Nueva Campana has been out of service. Even with that connection not in service, Argentina’s electrical grid was supposed to withstand another connection being severed from the grid. But when a second connection went offline on Sunday, the entire national grid was put out of action.
-
-
Electricity grid cybersecurity will be expensive – who will pay, and how much?
Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are capable of hacking into the computers that control the U.S. electricity grid. Protecting the grid from hacking would cost tens of billions of dollars. The electricity customers will likely foot most of the bill.
-
-
Signals from distant space could help secure electric substations
Side channel signals and bolts of lightning from distant storms could one day help prevent hackers from sabotaging electric power substations and other critical infrastructure.
-
-
Predicting impacts of extreme events on grids
A new, free, open-source software reliably predicts how damage from hurricanes, ice storms, earthquakes, and other extreme events will restrict power delivery from utility grids. The Severe Contingency Solver for Electric Power Transmission is the only software available—commercially or open-source—that reliably supports analysis of extreme events that cause widespread damage.
-
-
AI automatically detects disturbances in power supply grids
The grid is changing as the big, centralized providers of the past are replaced by smaller, distributed suppliers. Keeping such complex networks running stable requires high-resolution sensor technology – AI provides a way to make accurate predictions and automatically detect any disturbances or anomalies in real time.
-
-
Modernize the energy grid software
The grid is an intricate, highly complex system. One that has gotten even more complex with the increasing use of renewable energy resources like wind and solar. At some point, something will go wrong. A line will get cut. A generator will fail. There might be a hurricane or a cyberattack. How do you quickly correct for that failure to avoid a cascading blackout?
-
More headlines
The long view
Bringing 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?
Startup 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.