Overview
We ask a lot of our electricity grid. We count on it for abundant, reliable, sustainable, affordable energy. And with California’s new energy policies, we’re asking more of it every day. New technologies are emerging to transform our grid into a smart, efficient centerpiece of California’s energy future.
Technologies pave the way for renewables
The use of models and synchrophasors — devices that can be installed across the transmission grid to measure current, voltage, and other status-indicators in real time — was a lively topic of the California Energy Commission's symposium "Paving the Way for Renewables," held in Sacramento in October.
The event, with CIEE researchers taking part, is summarized in "Clearing Up," a publication of Energy NewsData. Learn More »
When we think of the grid that delivers our electricity, most of us picture the familiar network of towers and power lines snaking across the horizon. But with growing demands on its performance, this once workaday infrastructure must become a more dynamic, high-tech system.
Electric Grid Research at CIEE is creating technologies for new tools to modernize the grid and maximize its ability to meet customer needs and California’s aggressive energy-policy goals. The vision is a smarter, more responsive, more robust grid — the heart of California’s quest to reduce greenhouse gases, improve energy efficiency, and deploy more renewable energy, all while satisfying the new and growing ways customers use electricity.
With funding and direction from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, CIEE is working to make these new technologies reality through research. Experts are zeroing in on technologies that will equip the grid to deliver substantially more energy from renewable sources — economically, efficiently, and dependably. They’re arming operators and engineers with new tools to monitor and control the complex and fragile grid, and keep the energy flowing. And, they’re supplying the research to help energy providers and policy makers plan wisely and invest soundly in grid development.
