SYRACUSE — A lab focused on smart-grid technologies that has been planned since 2010 is up and running at Syracuse University (SU). A $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy helped establish the facility, located at SU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. The lab will help the school train the future engineers […]
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A $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy helped establish the facility, located at SU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. The lab will help the school train the future engineers who will be responsible for running the nation’s power grid in the coming years.
“We wanted [students] to have very good hands-on experience,” says Chilukuri Mohan, chairman of the department of electrical engineering and computer science. “Not just in the context of a specific tool, but rather getting used to a way of doing things which involves hands-on work.”
The grant helped pay for the equipment that students will use in the lab, Mohan says. It includes a model that simulates the entire electric grid from generation to transmission and distribution.
The model serves as a sandbox allowing students to see how various real-world scenarios affect and stress the grid. It includes elements involving renewables like wind and solar power so students can see how typical fluctuations in those energy sources affect the rest of the grid.
“Students would be able to see this and figure out how to mitigate it,” Mohan says.
The grant aims to help SU develop coursework for engineering students, utility workers, and unemployed personnel focused on smart-grid technologies. The university is collaborating with other groups including National Grid, the State University of New York Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Clarkson University, the University of Rochester, and Onondaga Community College.
A similar lab is located in Buffalo so experiments can be run simultaneously and results can be compared, Mohan says. The schools will also exchange information on their lab-oriented courses.
High demand is expected in the energy industry in the coming years for engineers with smart-grid skills. The mean age for the current crop of electrical engineers in the business is in the 50s, Mohan says.
“For a long time, people have not been hired,” he says. “In the coming years, there’s going to be a huge manpower gap to operate the grid.”
In addition, the technology that runs the power grid is changing dramatically. The days of one-way transmission from generator to consumer are over, Mohan says.
Small-scale, renewable-power generation can be installed at homes and businesses and much of that energy can flow back through the grid when it’s not in use on site, he explains.
“Technically, anyone could put up something in their own backyard and feed electricity back into the grid,” Mohan notes.
The advances are exciting and impressive, but make running the grid more challenging.
As more and more of our essential infrastructure in finance, communication, and other areas depends on a reliable power grid to function, the security threat from major blackouts increases, Mohan adds.
“It could really cripple the country,” he says. “We need to educate new engineers who can work with this technology.”
Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com