Brookhaven Lab to Partner on Electric Grid Modernization Projects

$220 million in funding awarded to groundbreaking DOE-wide Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium

UPTON, NY – The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory will join other national labs, universities, government, and industry in a complex-wide effort to improve the resiliency, reliability, and security of the nation's electricity delivery system. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced earlier today that DOE will award up to $220 million over three years to its national labs and partners to support critical research and development in advanced storage systems, clean energy integration, standards and test procedures, and a number of other key grid modernization areas. 

Grid Modernization

The awards, subject to congressional appropriations, will go to the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC), which includes 14 DOE national laboratories and dozens of industry, academia, and state and local government agency partners across the country. These funds are being awarded in response to a challenge to the national laboratories to establish a comprehensive grid-related research and development effort to address a range of emerging challenges and opportunities in the nation's power grid. 

"Modernizing the U.S. electrical grid is essential to reducing carbon emissions, creating safeguards against attacks on our infrastructure, and keeping the lights on," said Secretary Moniz. "Our Quadrennial Energy Review and Quadrennial Technology Review identified needs and opportunities to invest in the grid. This public-private partnership between our National Laboratories, industry, academia, and state and local government agencies will help us further strengthen our ongoing efforts to improve our electrical infrastructure so that it is prepared to respond to the nation's energy needs for decades to come." 

GMLC is part of the larger Grid Modernization Initiative, which represents a comprehensive DOE effort to help shape the future of our nation's grid and solve the challenges of integrating conventional and renewable sources with energy storage and smart buildings, while ensuring that the grid is resilient and secure to withstand growing cyber security and climate challenges. 

Brookhaven will lead or partner on seven projects as part of the Consortium (Note: proposed funding numbers are for all project partners over the life of each project):

  • Technical Support to the New York State Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) Initiative – Brookhaven will lead a project with Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and Idaho National Lab to provide technical support for New York State's Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative to build a clean, resilient, and affordable energy system for New York (Funding: $1M proposed over two years).
  • Foundational Analysis for GMLC Establishment/Framework Brookhaven will work with a team of DOE laboratories to develop metrics and conduct baseline assessments to establish a framework for assessing the impact and progress of the DOE Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium. Work will include developing dashboards to inform policy makers, industry stakeholders, and regulators about progress on the effort (Funding: $4.75M proposed over three years).
  • Establishment of Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium Testing Network – Brookhaven will work with laboratories across the complex to develop a testing network for advanced technologies. As part of the effort, Brookhaven will provide access to its Northeast Solar Energy Research Center for field-testing of new grid technologies (Funding: $1M+ proposed over three years).
  • DER siting and Optimization Tool to Enable large Scale Deployment of DER in California - As a part of a team of laboratories, Brookhaven will assist Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in developing an integrated distributed energy resource planning and optimization platform (Funding: $1.3M proposed over two years).
  • Multi-scale Integration of Control Systems (EMS/DMS/BMS) – Brookhaven and other labs will assist Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in developing a geographical information systems (GIS)-based model for distribution feeders (Funding: $3.5M proposed over three years).
  • Extreme Event Modeling – Brookhaven will work with Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop a tool that will help utilities and government agencies predict grid damage caused by extreme weather events (Funding: $3M proposed over three years).
  • A Closed-Loop Distribution System Restoration Tool for Natural Disaster Recovery – Brookhaven will work with Argonne National Laboratory to develop a model for predicting the status of the grid after extreme weather events (Funding: $1.95M proposed over three years).

"We look forward to joining our sister laboratories and other partners in developing science-based solutions to one of the biggest challenges facing our nation—our aging energy infrastructure," said Brookhaven Lab Director Doon Gibbs. "We're particularly pleased to support New York State in its groundbreaking Reforming the Energy Vision process, which could be a model for similar programs across the country."

"DOE support for Brookhaven Lab—as a founding member of the Smart Grid Consortium—and its grid modernization efforts comes at an opportune time as NY REV continues to gain momentum," said Robert B. Catell, Chairman of the New York State Smart Grid Consortium. "We're excited to draw on the expertise of our national lab partners and other collaborators in this endeavor."

A complete list of the projects and partners can be found at http://www.energy.gov/doe-grid-modernization-laboratory-consortium-gmlc-awards.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy.  The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.  For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

Tags: energy

2016-11806  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom