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The great northeast power blackout affected 50 million people in 2003. Like falling dominoes, eight states and portions of southeastern Canada plunged into darkness.

The Consortium on Energy Restructuring (CER), an interdisciplinary team of faculty members and graduate students representing Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Pamplin College of Business, and College of Engineering, is focusing on ways to add resilience to our power network.

Richard Hirsh (left) and Irene Leech

Gridlock

Industry and government officials pointed a blaming finger at an archaic grid system as the cause of the blackout. Richard Hirsh, professor of history and science and technology studies, was not surprised.

“An antiquated electric system, begun a century ago, consists of a hugely complicated and interdependent network of large centralized power plants and wires to bring power to customers," said Hirsh, director of the consortium. "An accident within such a complex system was almost inevitable."

Creating a new electric system archetype will require a robust network of distributed generation (DG) sources, such as fuel cells, micro-turbines, and renewable wind and solar (photovoltaic) energies, along with traditional centralized power plants using fossil fuels.

Such a system would reduce the strain on the existing grid by providing power to users without depending on transmission lines at all.

The CER aims to help by integrating power electronics technologies with novel business prototypes, analyzing policy, and gauging consumer education related to market restructuring.

The engineering faction of the consortium team is working on a "plug-and-play" power electronic building block with the ability to be mass-produced, thus allowing various DG technologies to connect to the utility grid, increasing dependability and reducing cost.

The business component is working on a computer simulation package to demonstrate economic viability. This Virginia Tech Electricity Grid and Market Simulator "is a robust tool for educational case studies in the field of power systems design, engineering, and management," according by Ralph Badinelli, professor of business information technology.

Educating the consumer

The consortium has identified the non-technical factors, including public policy and consumer acceptance, which seem to be the greatest impediments in adapting to a new system, according to Irene Leech, associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

Consumer advocates note that DG technologies are more efficient (transmission from centralized plants wastes up to 9 percent of electricity due to wire resistance) and more reliable for digital and telecommunications that require uninterrupted service. DG can decongest the grid by reducing demand during peak times.

In addition, decentralized power reduces terrorist targets that are offered by large nuclear facilities, for example.

“The major hurdle that remains is the public’s lack of understanding about how the utility system works,” said Leech, whose research focuses on consumer issues. “To be successful, a DG strategy must be understood and accepted by the public.”

Encountering a new and complicated bill, which will be broken down into transmission, distribution, and generation (the only competitive component), will most likely influence public understanding.

“Price volatility definitely makes consumers take notice,” said Leech, who makes sure her students are not only informed, but personally involved when it comes to policy.

Electrical Engineering graduate
student, Ryan Zuo, works with
the electrical device to help
prevent the shut-down of
power grids.

Additional assistance

Other researchers at Virginia Tech's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering also are working to help find solutions. They have developed a new device designed to monitor the nation's electric grid, technologies to supplement the grid, and alternative energy sources.

To monitor and secure the grid, the Frequency Monitoring Network (FNET) was developed by Yilu Liu, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and her faculty colleagues and students. The FNET can pinpoint the location of a power grid problem before a cascading effect can again cripple large parts of the nation.

Aside from CER's DG technology-effort to supplement the grid, the consortium also is encouraging the use of small-scale generation technologies as part of an approach to create a more secure and efficient electric utility system.

Energy research focusing on alternative energy sources include: the use of agricultural waste for biofuels; the use of alternative fuels and electricity to power the next generation automobiles; efforts to mainstream fuel cells; and work to speed the conversion of coal to natural gas by harnessing microbes.