Research that Does a Power of Good:

NSF-Funded Center Provides the Technical Foundation for a More Reliable Electricity Supply

New visualization technologies made possible by PSerc basic research are designed to enhance the capacity of electric power system operators to monitor grid conditions, maintain system reliability, and prevent cascading blackouts.

Basic research conducted by the NSF-supported Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Power Systems Engineering (PSerc) has been used to create innovative new software tools for real-time monitoring of the health of the nation's electric power grid. These tools directly address the root causes of cascading power failures, such as the one that affected the eastern U.S. in August 2003. Now being tested in California, the new monitoring tools are designed to alert power system operators to potentially dangerous grid conditions in a more timely and effective way, thus increasing their ability to take corrective action to prevent widespread power failures. The tools were developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution by the Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS), of which PSerc is a founding member.

 

Visual display of voltages across regional electricity systems in the western United States, using different colors to indicate areas of high (green), normal (blue), and low (red) voltage conditions. The CERTS Voltage Management Tool directly displays diagnostic information about the severity of observed conditions and the effectiveness of various options to address them.

 

 

"Lives and the economy depend on a reliable, secure supply of electricity," notes Robert Thomas, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University and director of PSerc. "The future reliability of the nation's electric power systems depends on new tools such as those developed by the CERTS initiative, and on basic research, such as that provided by PSerc, that underlies these tools."

 

One of the new CERTS grid monitoring technologies, the Voltage Management Tool, provides a visual display of voltages across regional electric power grids and also tracks the availability of electric power reserves relative to established reliability guidelines. The task force investigating the causes of the August 2003 blackout found that low power reserves in northern Ohio played a significant role in initiating the cascading power failure.

 

The CERTS Voltage Management Tool represents a significant improvement over currently available means of obtaining information about voltages across regional power systems. In restructured electricity markets featuring extensive regional power trading and interconnections between local electric power systems, grid operators must consider real-time information from an entire region rather than just the service area of a single utility in order to determine safe operating margins. The new CERTS tool replaces difficult-to-read data tables on voltages at various monitoring points with a bird's-eye view of the overall health of the grid, giving power system operators immediate access to information on system voltages over a wide area as well as reserve margins at critical grid locations. Made possible in part by PSerc research on methodologies for voltage monitoring, control, and planning, this new software will enable power system operators to quickly grasp grid conditions and take action to address emerging problems.

The CERTS phasor management tool uses a global positioning system to time-stamp measurements of power flows across regional electricity systems, enabling precise comparisons.

A second grid monitoring technology based on PSerc research is the CERTS Advanced Real-Time Synchronized Phasor Measurement Tool, which measures and records data on electric power flows 100 times faster than current technologies. Standard grid monitoring technologies take snapshots of system conditions every 4 seconds, which is not fast enough for monitoring highly dynamic, interregional power systems in which cascading blackouts typically require only 8 to 10 seconds to propagate across a continent. The new phasor measurement tool records data many times per second, giving grid operators a better picture of grid conditions needed to support safe, reliable regional and interregional transfers of electricity. (A phasor is a measurement used to by the electric power industry to quantify power flows.)  PSerc research was instrumental in developing the phasor measurement methodology that underlies this pioneering tool.

 

"The research base provided by PSerc has become a national asset. Its contribution to the foundation for accurate monitoring of the U.S. power grid will help ensure a steady supply of electric power throughout the United States," comments Alex Schwarzkopf, a director of NSF's Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Program.  NSF provided funding to establish PSerc in 1995 and continues to support the Center's ongoing research.

 

PSerc is a research consortium of 13 universities working collaboratively with the electric power industry to create solutions for the complex problems facing the industry, including new market structures, new technologies, and new environmental priorities. Educating the next generation of power industry engineers is also central to the PSerc mission. PSerc partner institutions are Cornell University (lead institution), Arizona State University, the University of California at Berkeley, Carnegie-Mellon University, the Colorado School of Mines, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Iowa State University, Texas A&M University, Washington State University, Wichita State University, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

 

The Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) was formed in 1999 to research, develop, and commercialize new tools and technologies to enhance the reliability of the U.S. electric power system in restructured, competitive electric power markets. The founding members of CERTS are PSerc, the Electric Power Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratory. CERTS provided technical support to the U.S.-Canada Task Force investigating the August 14, 2003 blackout.

 

For more information, contact Robert Thomas, Director of PSerc, at rjt1@cornell.edu, (607) 255-5083.