{"id":3166,"date":"2016-02-19T10:15:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T16:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/for-wisconsin\/?post_type=campus_story&p=3166"},"modified":"2016-07-08T15:55:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T20:55:52","slug":"uw-milwaukee-building-a-better-way-to-supply-energy","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-milwaukee-building-a-better-way-to-supply-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Milwaukee: Building a better way to supply energy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nasiri\"<\/a>
UW-Milwaukee Professor Adel Nasiri is working with companies to advance microgrid technology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t a natural disaster or high demand that caused an electrical blackout in the northeastern United States in summer 2003. A high-voltage power line in Ohio brushed against overgrown trees, causing it to shut down, and touching off a domino effect of disabled lines.<\/p>\n

For the next two days, 50 million people in eight states were left without power. But a technology being perfected at the University of Wisconsin\u2013Milwaukee (UWM), called a microgrid, will keep that from happening again.<\/p>\n

Microgrids are free-standing power sources that integrate disparate energy-generating sources, store the energy and then distribute it uninterrupted to a limited surrounding area during power outages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny place where large numbers of people congregate \u2013 military bases, factories, sports arenas or even Disney World \u2013 would be unaffected by a blackout if there is a microgrid in place,\u201d said Vijay Bhavaraju, principal engineer in power system technologies at Eaton Corporation.<\/p>\n

Eaton is one of six Milwaukee companies working with UWM Professor Adel Nasiri to advance microgrid technology, addressing the obstacles that have so far kept it from the commercial market where it is projected to generate revenues of $3 billion by 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one in Milwaukee will be the state-of-the-art microgrid testbed in the country,\u201d Nasiri explained. \u201cWe can use it in conducting research for federal projects, and for testing with private companies. It will accelerate what we can do together with industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

While microgrids can serve as energy islands, Nasiri\u2019s testbed has another important benefit: It can integrate energy from diverse sources \u2013 like solar, wind and batteries \u2013 into the nation\u2019s distribution system for electricity, called the central grid. That means eco-minded energy consumers won\u2019t have to put solar cells in their backyards in order to have access to green energy.<\/p>\n

The timing is right. The cost of obtaining renewable energy is dropping. But because renewables generate and distribute energy differently than power plants, the transfer of these added sources isn\u2019t compatible with the nation\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n

In order to augment the grid, the \u201cadded\u201d energy sources must conform to the way the existing grid distributes electricity.<\/p>\n

When dispatching energy from coal-burning power plants or hydroelectric plants, the grid adjusts the output amount to match user demand. Energy coming from renewable energy sources is not adjustable, however, and is difficult to store.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy adding multiple other sources, we will need to \u2018smooth out\u2019 the intermittent power that renewables generate, in order to keep the output-demand in balance,\u201d Nasiri said.<\/p>\n

Wind turbines, for example, generate electricity only when the wind is blowing. But in most places, the wind blows more often at night when demand for electricity is low. Nasiri\u2019s patented technology allows renewable energy produced when demand is low to be stored and then released when the demand is high.<\/p>\n

Microgrids like the one Nasiri is building with industry partners will fix energy-compatibility problems, and ultimately help reduce emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants by increasing use of renewables.<\/p>\n

The energy sources in a microgrid vary in number and variety. Renewables could be included in a microgrid, but so could natural gas- and diesel-fueled generators.<\/p>\n

UWM engineering students are working with Eaton on software that allows communication among the various energy sources, giving the microgrid the ability to customize the mix of energy sources in its \u201carsenal\u201d in order to improve efficiency.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, on a windy day you could eliminate the diesel portion of the microgrid,\u201d said Eaton\u2019s Bhavaraju. \u201cYou can tune the kind of output to the\u00a0end user by scheduling when to turn one source on and another one off. So if we can manage the electricity sources, we could show up to 40 percent in fuel savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

UWM-industry collaboration<\/h3>\n

UWM\u2019s microgrid testbed, funded in part by the Midwest Energy Research Consortium, an industrial-academic research coalition, will give regional companies a first look at the compatibility of their parts. Besides Eaton, other participating companies are Kohler, Rockwell Automation, LEM, Odyne and ZBB Energy Corp.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Army is already developing microgrid technology to ensure power to military bases. Nasiri and Bhavaraju recently received funding to improve operations of a microgrid at Fort Sill, a base about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

Their objective was to identify how to orchestrate a seamless transfer of service when the microgrid is disconnected from the grid.<\/p>\n

Their efforts resulted in creation of a new part, the controller, which enables that uninterrupted jump.<\/p>\n

Working out the manipulation of energy needed to make microgrids safe and viable is a major undertaking. One of Nasiri\u2019s remaining challenges is developing components that will streamline the complicated task of managing voltage and frequency.<\/p>\n

Along the microgrid construction journey, UWM engineering students from Nasiri\u2019s lab have participated in grant-funded research, such as the Fort Sill microgrid project. Eaton has hired a few UWM students part-time to focus on a specific feature, says Bhavaraju.<\/p>\n

Of three UWM students assisting with the work at Fort Sill, Eaton recently hired two full time after graduation.<\/p>\n

The participation of students is an asset to the work, added Bhavaraju. \u201cIt will be the students who will move the needle.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Laura L. Otto<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t a natural disaster or high demand that caused an electrical blackout in the northeastern United States in summer 2003. A high-voltage power line in Ohio brushed against overgrown trees, causing it to shut down, and touching off a domino effect of disabled lines. For the next two days, 50 million people in eight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[107],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-3166","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-milwaukee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/3166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=3166"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=3166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}