Grid

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.

ARPA-E today issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) of up to $5 million for research and development of algorithms to modernize the electric grid. If successful, awardees will participate in Challenge 1 of ARPA-E’s Grid Optimization (GO) Competition, set to launch in fall 2018.  

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.

BACK TO THE FUTURE, FOR THE ELECTRIC POWER GRID UPDATED: FEBRUARY 3, 2017PROJECT TITLE: High-Voltage, High-Power Gas Tube Technology for HVDC TransmissionPROGRAM: OPEN 2012AWARD:$7,206,569PROJECT TEAM: General Electric Company (Lead), University of Wisconsin, Princeton Plasma Physics LabPROJECT TERM: April 2013 – April 2017PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI): Dr. Timothy J Sommerer

PRECISE, TIME SYNCHRONIZED DISTRIBUTION GRID MEASUREMENTS UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 9, 2016 PROJECT TITLE: Micro-Synchrophasors for Distribution Systems PROGRAM: OPEN 2012 AWARD: $3,892,276 PROJECT TEAM: University of California Berkeley/California Institute for Energy and Environment (Lead); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Power Standards Lab PROJECT TERM: April 2013 – August 2016

GRID MODERNIZATION WITH POWER FLOW CONTROLLER UPDATED: APRIL 28, 2016PROJECT TITLE: Dynamic Power Flow ControllerPROGRAM: Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI)AWARD: $4,025,951PROJECT TEAM: Varentec (Lead); Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI); Georgia Tech Research Corporation; SPX Transformer Solutions (Waukesha Electric Systems)PROJECT TERM: January 2012 to April 2016

IMPROVING THE INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLES ON THE GRID UPDATED: APRIL 26, 2016 PROJECT TITLE: Highly Dispatchable and Distributed Demand Response for the Integration of Distributed Generation PROGRAM: Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI) AWARD: $3,465,385 PROJECT TEAM: AutoGrid Systems (Lead); Columbia University; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory PROJECT TERM: January 2012 – March 2014

DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION CAPACITY UPDATED: FEBRUARY 24, 2016 PROJECT TITLES: Distributed Power Flow Control Using Smart Wires for Energy RoutingPROGRAM: GENIAWARD: $3,977,745PROJECT TEAM: Smart Wires (Lead); Carnegie Mellon University; PowerWorld Corporation; Georgia Tech Research Corporation; Electrical Distribution and Design, Inc.; Innoventor, Inc.; New Potato Technology, Inc.

ADVANCED POWER FLOW TOPOLOGY CONTROLS FOR THE GRID UPDATED: OCTOBER 28, 2015PROJECT TITLES: Transmission Topology Control for Infrastructure Resilience to the Integration of Renewable Generation PROGRAM: GENIAWARD: $2,361,591PROJECT TEAM: Boston University (Lead); Newton Energy Group; Northeastern University; AIMMS; PJM Interconnection; Polaris Systems Optimization; The Brattle Group; Tufts University