NODES Highlights

Severe weather, cyber intrusions, and physical attacks can damage America’s critical energy infrastructure and cause power outages that affect families and businesses alike. This transformation is driving ARPA‑E to support promising early-stage energy technologies that could make the U.S. electric grid more reliable, flexible, and resilient.

When Hurricane Maria struck the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico last September, it took the entire island’s power grid with it. Today, over 95 percent of the island has its power restored, but the rebuilding process is far from finished. Over the long term, many challenges remain — along with some big opportunities to make the grid smarter and more resilient.

Executive Summary: The main objective of this study is to quantify the entitlement for system benefits attainable by pervasive application of flexible energy resources in scenarios with extra-high penetration of renewable energy.

Learn more about Dr. Sonja Glavaski's background, how she came to ARPA-E, all about the Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems (NODES) Program, and what it means to be a woman in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  

WASHINGTON— The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $33 million in funding for 12 innovative projects as part of ARPA-E’s newest program Network Optimized Distributed Energy Systems (NODES). NODES project teams will develop technologies that coordinate load and generation on the grid to create a virtual energy storage system.

The aging U.S. electric grid is comprised of more than 300,000 miles of electric transmission lines that take electricity from power plants to transformers and finally, into homes and businesses. More than 30% of the electric grid's transmission lines, transformers and other hardware are approaching or past the end of their life cycle. About 10% of electricity produced in U.S. power plants never reaches potential users because it’s lost during transmission, and power outages and blackouts. This loss of energy costs businesses and consumers nearly $80 billion dollars a year.  

The workshop convened thought leaders and experts in power systems, data analytics, and control systems to develop new ideas and paths forward for the development of disruptive technologies enabling optimal grid operation with increased adoption of distributed energy resources, while maintaining and possibly increasing grid reliability and reducing carbon footprint.