| The U.S. electrical power
grid relies on an old, highly centralized infrastructure teeming with mechanical
connections and inherent inefficiencies. However, a technological revolution
perhaps as sweeping in scope as the Internet is coming to the power sector.
Researchers at NSF's Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management
(FREEDM) Systems Center, an Engineering Research Center (ERC) headquartered
at North Carolina State University's (NCSU’s) Centennial Campus, are gearing
up to augment their "smart grid" development efforts as new, green energy-powered
Center facilities come online.
The FREEDM Center, along
with Keystone (a developer for NCSU), industry partner Quanta Technology,
and NCSU's Centennial Campus Development Office completed the design and
began construction of a 20,000 sq. ft. ERC headquarters space. The space
is expected to be move-in ready in 2010.
In addition, a 5,000 sq.
ft. dedicated high bay lab was designed to house the 1-megawatt FREEDM
System test bed. Researchers will use this platform to test Center-developed
technologies as well as third-party smart grid technologies. In keeping
with the green energy mission of the Center, a preliminary concept of its
1-megawatt Green Energy Hub has been developed to site renewable energy
generation around the new Center and throughout the Centennial Campus at
NC State University. The energy produced will power the Center as well
as other campus buildings.
These initiatives align with
the Center's mission to help develop an "Internet for energy," in which
power generation and consumption take place using a far more distributed,
decentralized model than that used today. Under this vision for a "smart
grid," intelligent devices owned by electricity consumers will have two-way
communications with the network. Such a capability is expected to create
an explosion of innovative applications that make more efficient use of
electric power resources. The Center will play a key role in the development
and testing of many of those applications as well as the infrastructure
model on which they're used. |
