Linda Hardesty
The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is awarding up to $6.5 million to five new partnerships that will address the challenge of enabling the nation's electric grid to handle more renewable energy.
NREL is managing the Integrated Network Testbed for Energy Grid Research and Technology Experimentation (INTEGRATE), and all of the following teams will test their technologies in NREL's megawatt-scale Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF).
- OMNETRIC Group will design an open-source based interoperable platform at the distribution scale.
- Smarter Grid Solutions will deploy and demonstrate an integrated, plug-and-play grid management system, using active network management (ANM) to enhance the capacity of the grid to host renewable energy resources.
- The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will demonstrate a framework of communication and control technologies, integrating operation of different domains within distribution systems.
- Under a separate partnership, EPRI will examine how grid-connected electronic devices can help increase the grid's ability to accept power from renewable energy systems.
- The University of Delaware will test how electric vehicles can provide energy storage support to the power grid.
