Researchers at the University of North Dakota will soon begin studying ways to improve the reliability of the country's power grid.
Assistant Professor Dr. Prakash Ranganathan and Associate Professor Dr. Naima Kaabouch work within the electrical engineering department of UND's College of Engineering and Mines. They say the nation's current power grid structure is over 50 years old, and needs updating. Ranganathan says the research will look into what causes instability within the grid, resulting in blackouts than can cost tens of billions of dollars.
"Our proposal, with my colleague Dr. Kaabouch and myself, is to develop an energy model that can do these tasks and eventually be able to coordinate with local utilities and national utilities to share those ideas with them to see how that can be integrated."
Kaabouch says both graduate and undergraduate students will be hired to work on the research project, and they will be tasked with helping identify issues and develop possible solutions. She says it is hoped that the research will result in the acquisition of more grant dollars to keep the project moving forward.
"When we start working on this project we will discover all the problems, and we will be able to suggest other solutions. So hopefully this is the beginning of helping to secure more grants."
The current grant from the National Science Foundation is for $215,622 and it will run for two years. Ranganathan and Kaabouch say it is ultimately hoped the project will result in a new framework for monitoring, understanding and managing energy resources and smart-grid environments.
