Research and Development

Galvin Electricity Initiative

http://www.galvinpower.org

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Snapshot

This nonprofit, privately funded research and development effort is sponsored by the Galvin Project, Inc., which is led by Bob Galvin, former CEO of Motorola and a key figure in establishing the internationally recognized "Six Sigma" quality control process. Founded in 2005, the initiative advocates creating “a consumer-focused electric energy system that never fails”—what it also likes to call “the perfect power system.”

Smart Grid Focus

The Galvin Electricity Initiative asserts that the perfect power system will include both a major technological update to the existing generation, distribution and transmission systems as well as the building and interconnecting of smaller systems or smart microgrids enabled by digital controls and distributed generation facilities all over the country. Eventually, it’s possible that the grid would become obsolete. But for the foreseeable future, the perfect power system will most likely include a “smart” version of the existing grid.

Phase One of the initiative defined a set of four generic electric energy system configurations.  Phase Two, which began in January 2006, expands and refines the Phase One results into specific implementation blueprints, templates and quality management plans. The goal of Phase Two is to provide a comprehensive system design, engineering, quality management and business package enabling confident, prompt, commercial implementation.

The initiative has teamed with the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and other energy experts to design and construct a prototype Perfect Power System (PPS). Construction on the five-year PPS project began in early 2009 and uses Six Sigma quality methods developed by Motorola.

Key People

EPRI IntelliGrid Program

http://intelligrid.epri.com 

Snapshot

The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. The IntelliGrid research program focuses on the best way to create a Smart Grid and incorporate it into the operations of individual utilities. In 2007, the EPRI IntelliGrid methodology was recognized as a standard by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Smart Grid Focus

The IntelliGrid program is focused on providing members with the methodologies, tools, proposed standards and unbiased assessments of technologies when implementing new system-wide technology solutions for advanced metering, distribution automation, demand response and wide-area monitoring and control.  It also provides utilities with independent, unbiased testing of technologies and vendor products.  Among other things, the IntelliGrid projects are delivering:

A comprehensive Smart Grid database including standards, deployments and vendor activities

• Current information on security issues for Energy Management Systems / SCADA and the intelligent transmission and distribution infrastructure
• Security requirements and policies for an advanced metering infrastructure
• Communications architecture for integrating smart devices and communications networks 
• Continued development of IEC 61850 and contributions to the standard
• Requirements for Smart Grid applications

A major early product of the IntelliGrid initiative is the IntelliGrid Architecture, an open-standards, requirements-based approach for integrating data networks and equipment that enables interoperability between products and systems. Specific Intelligrid project are described in the 2009 Research Portfolio.  

Key People

• Arshad Mansoor, VP of Power Delivery and Utilization, EPRI
• Donald Von Dollen, IntelliGrid Program Technical Lead

Power Systems Engineering Research Center

www.pserc.wisc.edu

Snapshot

The Power Systems Engineering Research Center (PSERC) is a research consortium that brings 13 universities together with industry to create solutions to complex and diverse problems facing the electric power industry. PSERC is managed by a director and executive committee, and operates with funds provided by the partner universities, the National Science Foundation, and members of the electric power industry. 

Smart Grid Focus

The goal of PSERC is to create the necessary tools and models to aid in the technical design of a future high-performance electric power system, a system that will be more efficient, more responsive, and more environmentally acceptable than the one that is operating today. The multidisciplinary expertise of PSERC’s researchers includes power systems, applied mathematics, complex systems, computing, control theory, power electronics, operations research, non-linear systems, economics, industrial organization and public policy. PSERC partners with private and public organizations that provide integrated energy services, transmission and distribution services, power system planning, control and oversight, market management services, and public policy development.