In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri demonstrated to Texas and the rest of the nation both the criticality and the vulnerability of our electric grids. Unfortunately, there are multiple other events, potentially much more extreme than Uri, which could also affect our electricity supply. At the same time, the electric grids are rapidly changing with two key drivers being the integration of substantial renewable generation, and the rapid electrification of transportation.
To greatly minimize the risk of these severe events there is a need for better engineering models to represent the behavior of the grid more accurately during such events in order to develop effective mitigation strategies. This dependence is growing with our increasing use of wind and solar generation, both of which are quite variable and can be unavailable for longer periods due to “wind resource droughts” or usually cloudy conditions, “solar resource droughts.” The degree of dependence of our electric grids on outlier weather requires an in-depth study that accounts for the location of the generation resources, the likely impact of outlier weather on the generation resources, and the ability of the high voltage transmission system to transport electricity.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of US Department of Commerce funded the 2-year project titled “Electric Grid Resilience” from October 1, 2024. Texas A&M University Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) is the lead organization and the principal investigator (PI) is Thomas Overbye, Ph.D., professor and holder of the O’Donnell Foundation Chair III in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU), and Director of TEES Smart Grid Center. The research team of key personnel also includes Miroslav Begovic, Ph.D. (professor, ECE, TAMU), Adam Birchfield, Ph.D. (assistant professor, ECE, TAMU), John Nielsen-Gammon, Ph.D. (professor, ATMO, TAMU), Jonathan Snodgrass, Ph.D. (senior research engineer, ECE), and Farnaz Safdarian, Ph.D. (senior research engineer, ECE).
The project activities are focusing on using a variety of different sources to develop both the models and associated extreme grid scenarios. Data sources include historical events, theoretical modeling frameworks, and results already in the literature. These prototype models are integrated into representations of all three of the actual U.S. electric grids (East, West and ERCOT), starting with the one for Texas (ERCOT). Results from this effort can be used to help ensure that whatever events may occur in the future, the nation’s electric grids are prepared.