Travel Grant: Workshop on Research Directions for the Grid Edge, To Be Held March 24-25, in Alexandria, VA Grant uri icon

abstract

  • This proposal requests funding to provide travel subsidies for university professors to attend the NSF Workshop to define the Research Directions for the Grid Edge: Interfacing the Legacy Grids Operated by Utilities with Emerging Grids Owned and Operated by Third Parties at the Edge. The workshop focusing on unresolved problems, technology requirements and research directions for the time horizon of 5-10 years will be held in Washington DC on March 24-25, 2020. This workshop intends to bring the travel grant recipients, as well as industry and government stakeholders together to address the Grid Edge concepts, fundamentals and vision holistically. The proposed workshop will offer a forum to discuss and coordinate a research strategy and related action plan to meet industry needs for new solutions in response to the new developments affecting the grid. The grid edge is considered a crucial development for the future of the electricity grids requires contributions from academics, engineers, policy makers, economists, social scientists, government officials, and technology leaders in delivering solutions for the next generation electricity grid for the benefits of the society. The fundamental concepts needed for advancing the grid Edge require an interdisciplinary approach involving basic research, applied engineering, technology innovation, behavioral studies, market economics, and policy insights. The grid edge is defined in this context through multiple dimensions: a) the asset ownership, which entails the utility owned and non-utility owned assets, b) the edge stakeholder role, which encompasses the utility-centric and third party-centric view, and the view that focuses on the need to closely collaborate across the edge boundaries, and c) the structured operational layers covering physical grid components, control and protection, the technology, cyber-physical security and privacy, markets, regulatory framework, and business models. This workshop will continue the NSF past and current efforts undertaken through a recent series of timely workshops to offer additional research insight and a perspective focusing on the cyber and physical aspects of energy generation and consumption at the grid edge. This award reflects NSF''s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation''s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

date/time interval

  • 2020 - 2021