INFUSE workshop gives private and public fusion partners a chance to network and share experiences

More than 120 people gathered for the 2024 Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) Workshop at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from Feb. 27-28. The event, which was sponsored by the DOE’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (FES), is a part of the INFUSE awards program that funds laboratories or universities so they can partner with private sector companies working on the science and technology solutions that will bring fusion energy to the power grid. To date, DOE has granted 90 awards, with most ranging from $100,000 to $350,000 for a 12-month project.

Protecting the protectors: Virginia Tech researchers work to secure power grid communication on military bases.

For months, U.S. officials have been sniffing out malicious computer code that they suspect to be planted inside the power grid and communication control systems on U.S. military bases. Virginia Tech researchers already are working on a plan to secure future military base power grid operations and their critical missions from such threats.

GW Experts on Energy Grid Resiliency After Texas Ice Storm

Thousands of people across the state of Texas were still without power early Friday after an ice storm hit the state and parts of the U.S. South this week. Local officials are attributing the outages to frozen equipment and ice-burdened…

Challenges in Modern Power Electronics Penetrated Power Grid

Professor Michael Chi Kong Tse, the Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), presented an online talk as part of the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) Distinguished Lecture Series on Electronics and Photonics on 12 April 2022, titled ” Challenges of Modern Power Grid in the Midst of Deepening Power Electronics Penetration and Increasing Renewable Energy Use”.

Smart Devices to Schedule Electricity Use May Prevent Blackouts

Power plants generate electricity and send it into power lines that distribute energy to nodes where it can be used. But if the electricity load is more than the system’s capacity, transmission can fail, leading to a cascade of failures throughout the electric grid. In the journal Chaos, researchers show demand side control may be an effective solution to stabilizing the reliability of power grids that use a mix of energy generation sources.

$39 Million to better integrate renewables into power grid

The National Science Foundation has awarded $39 million to a team of engineers and computer scientists at the University of California San Diego to build a first-of-its-kind testbed to better understand how to integrate distributed energy sources such as solar panels, wind turbines, smart buildings and electric vehicle batteries into the power grid. The goal is to make the testbed available to outside research teams and industry by 2025.

Power Player: Engineering professor researches how to keep America’s lights on

Ning Zhou from Binghamton University, State University of New York received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to provide a 21st-century vision for power systems.