If a city experiences a major power outage due to a natural disaster or a cyberattack, it is vital to bring back power as soon as possible for first responders and critical infrastructure.
University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Masood Parvania and his team at his Utah Smart Energy Laboratory (U-Smart) have received a three-year, $4.4 million research award from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to advance solar energy’s role in strengthening the resilience of the U.S. electricity grid. This project will develop an automated resilience management system (ARMS) to enhance the city’s power grid in case of a power outage.
“It is critical to ensure resilience of power supply to emergency services and first responses, such as hospitals, after a major power outage caused by widespread events like natural disasters,” Parvania, says. “The ARMS solution will use distributed solar photovoltaics, distributed energy resources, fault detection sensors, and distribution monitoring and switching equipment to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure and emergency centers.”
The project partners include PacifiCorp, Utah Governor’s Office of Energy Development, Idaho National Laboratory and Washington State University.
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