Stanford & SLAC Launch ‘Bits & Watts’ Initiative To Create 21st Century Electric Grid

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Researchers from Stanford University and the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have launched a new initiative called ‘Bits & Watts’ which will seek to develop a “smart” technology to help transition the US electricity grid into the 21st century.

Announced on Tuesday, ‘Bits & Watts’ was launched by Stanford University and the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in an attempt “to solve that problem by developing “smart” technology that will bring the grid into the 21st century while delivering reliable, efficient, affordable power to homes and businesses.” Further, the interdisciplinary initiative will also go beyond developing technological solutions, and develop market structures, regulatory frameworks, business models, and pricing mechanisms that will in their own way smooth the way for a smart and efficient electricity grid.

As such, ‘Bits & Watts’ brings together technical experts from SLAC with Stanford’s own business, law, and engineering experts, who together will work with industry and policymakers “to identify and solve problems that stand in the way of grid modernization.” The initiative will include two labs connected via the cloud at Stanford and at SLAC. As part of their work, the two groups will develop an efficient method of using digital sensors and controls to collect millions of points of data — from rooftop solar panels to electric car charging stations, wind farms to factory operations, and household appliances and thermostats. The real-time feedback all this data can provide will give grid operators the means to seamlessly incorporate variable sources of energy while automatically adjusting power distribution.

“The first challenge was to bring down the cost of wind, solar and other forms of distributed power. The next challenge is to create an integrated system,” said Steven Chu, a Stanford professor, Nobel laureate and former US Energy Secretary and one of the founding researchers of Bits & Watts. “We must develop the right technologies, financial incentives, and investment atmosphere to take full advantage of the lowering costs of clean energy.”

The fundamental problem that needs to be solved is a way for the existing electricity grid to manage the ever-increasing levels of variable renewable energy sources which are vital to a low-carbon economy future. The US electricity grid is actually made up of two massive, continent-spanning electricity networks, plus a third, smaller network in the still large state of Texas, that connect everything together.

“Today’s electric grid is one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century and the lifeblood of the modern economy,” explained Arun Majumdar, a Stanford professor of mechanical engineering who co-directs both Bits & Watts and the university’s Precourt Institute for Energy, which oversees the initiative. “But it’s also an incredibly complex and finely balanced ecosystem that’s designed to handle power flows in only one direction — from centralized power plants to the consumer.”

“As we incorporate more low-carbon, highly variable sources like wind and solar — including energy generated, stored and injected back into the grid by individual consumers — we’ll need a whole new set of tools, from computing and communications to controls and data sciences, to keep the grid stable, efficient and secure and provide affordable electricity.”

“Technology has enabled many new options for how people get their electricity,” added Frank Wolak, a Stanford economics professor and the other co-director of Bits & Watts. “Deploying the least-cost mix of these technologies to meet the needs of current and future electricity consumers will require new wholesale and retail market mechanisms and new regulations. A research effort involving engineers, social scientists and legal scholars, as Bits & Watts is doing, is essential to achieve this goal.”

‘Bits & Watts’ will also be made up of several research projects which will:

  • Simulate the entire smart grid, from central power plants to networked home appliances (Virtual Megagrid)
  • Analyze data on electricity use, weather, geography, demographic patterns, and other factors to get a clear understanding of customer behavior via an easy-to-understand graphical interface (VISDOM)
  • Develop a “home hub” system that controls and monitors a home’s appliances, heating and cooling and other electrical demands and can switch them on and off in response to fluctuating electricity prices, demands on the power grid and the customer’s needs (Powernet)
  • Gather vast and growing sources of data from buildings, rooftop solar modules, electric vehicles, utility equipment, energy markets and so on, and analyze it in real time to dramatically improve the operation and planning of the electricity grid (VADER). This project will incorporate new data science tools such as machine learning, and validate those tools using data from utilities and industry
  • Create a unique data depository for the electricity ecosystem (DataCommons)

“SLAC and Stanford, in cooperation with industry and electricity system stakeholders, will rise to the challenges of building a modern grid that will make a clean energy future possible,” said SLAC Laboratory Director Chi-Chang Kao.


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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