The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently selected a team of Penn State researchers to compete in the first challenge of its Grid Optimization Competition.
The Penn State team of researchers is led by Uday V. Shanbhag, the Gary and Sheila Bello Chair and professor in the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Penn State was one of only 10 universities chosen for the challenge.
With the first round of funding, teams will work to design algorithms to direct the power flow within the current grid. These algorithms must route energy from various kinds of power generation facilities in a responsive, cost-conserving way. As compared to past models, new models need to account for more variables, including the fluctuating nature of renewable energies like solar and wind power.
“As the United States begins incorporating more renewable energy sources, there are some new and unique challenges that today’s infrastructure simply can’t handle,” Shanbhag said.
In the next phase of the competition, DOE will provide each team with sample data from the power grid to test their algorithms.
“There are many reasons why this is a daunting mathematical and computational challenge, and why Dr. Shanbhag’s vision for computationally efficient solution methods could be a major game changer,” Hosam Fathy, the Bryant Early Career Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said. “If the Penn State team wins this competition, it will be an indication that we have made substantial strides in the stochastic grid optimization domain, thereby paving the way towards significant leaps in how the electric power grid is operated both now and in the future.”