
NSF Org: |
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | July 9, 2021 |
Latest Amendment Date: | July 9, 2021 |
Award Number: | 2124215 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Medhi Ferdowsi
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers ENG Directorate for Engineering |
Start Date: | September 1, 2021 |
End Date: | August 31, 2022 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $99,623.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $99,623.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
9201 UNIVERSITY CITY BLVD CHARLOTTE NC US 28223-0001 (704)687-1888 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
9201 University City Blvd., Univ Charlotte NC US 28223-0040 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | ERC-Eng Research Centers |
Primary Program Source: |
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Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.
The pathway to a sustainable carbon neutral electricity ecosystem requires a paradigm shift. While the new operational paradigm is not yet fully known, the new paradigm must cultivate an ecosystem that optimizes for stability, reliability, affordability, and carbon neutrality, while also accommodating a relentless list of needs: new stakeholders, industry models, and regulatory policies, the ever more rapid and numerous digital and technical advances, the increasing pervasiveness of the digital and technical (i.e., IoT), the variability and uncertainty in human behavior, the expected and unexpected transitions to more sustainable energy solutions, the need for flexibility and agility, and the anticipated climate variability. To achieve this, there must be a recognition of the significance of the value of the services enabled by energy rather than the energy itself. If successful, the planned ERC will be the first of its kind to bring convergence to power systems modeling and simulation with human centered modeling and simulation. The approach is critical, transformative, sustainable, and realistic, which not only leads us to a carbon-neutral energy grid, but also provides full human interaction and customer participation on a highly automated, large scale planning and operational framework.
This ERC planning grant will further identify gaps, potential stakeholders including team expansion, key personnel and evaluate the goal and overarching objectives for the future center. Additionally, the potential ERC will have a broad set of university researchers and key industrial stakeholders across a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds including (1) power systems; (2) optimization and control; (3) high performance computing; (3) software engineering; (4) computational social science; (5) data science; (6) policy and government; (7) economics; (8) behavioral science, (9) environmental economics; (10) building architecture and design; (11) transportation planning; (12) cybersecurity. There is no base of modeling and simulation tools, methods, or experience to support such an unprecedented effort. Forecasting has been a science that has evolved slowly, relying heavily on experience from past data. But new science, enabling technology, and systems integration based on revolutionary improvements in predicting interactions by prosumers, a new blend of consumer and producer who responds to the available energy supply in complex ways governed by a system of transactional energy. The proposed center liberates the proposed team from the fundamental problems existing within the scope of current funding which achieve incremental improvements; this ERC aims to achieve a quantum leap by utilizing a digital twin that simultaneously manages complex scale and complex interdependencies. The PIs? direct involvement in cutting-edge digital-twin development provides them the perspective to note that effectively addressing the challenges of integrating technologies at scale in an uncertain political, financial, and socio-economic landscape requires the type of transformative and convergent work that can only be performed through an ERC.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The major goal of this project was to plan an ERC focusing on the attainment of a sustainable carbon neutral electricity ecosystem. This ERC will be the first of its kind to bring convergence to power systems modeling and simulation with human centered modeling and simulation.
An enabling technology for the ERC will be a digital twin – an agile digital replica of physical ecosystems that allows for iterative simulations including unknown inputs. Building upon the digital twin paradigm widely adopted in manufacturing, the intent is to pursue an unprecedented level of control backed by a digital platform capable of handling simultaneously complex scale and complex interdependencies.
The planned ERC is to include a broad set of university researchers and key industrial stakeholders across a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds including engineering, high performance computing, computational social science, data science, policy and government, and behavioral science.
The specific goals were to:
- Identify gaps and potential stakeholders, including team expansion, key personnel and evaluate the goal and overarching objectives for the future ERC.
- Develop a ten-member external advisory board (EAB) that will include representatives from CAPER, leading utilities, national laboratories, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and policy researchers.
- Plan and coordinate two workshops. The first workshop is to be scheduled in early 2022 and will be approximately 1.5 days. The team tentatively plans a combined virtual and face-to-face meeting. The primary outcome of the first meeting is to obtain a clearer understanding of the needs of the digital twin model. The second workshop is to be held in mid-year 2022, and the intended outcome will be to formalize the three-level diagram. Specific subgroups will be convened to focus on the key areas of fundamental science, and how these integrate to drive innovation. The participants in the second workshop will be carefully selected based on the perceived needs of the center. At the end of the second workshop, the PIs intend to have a draft diagram and a roadmap to the completion of an ERC proposal.
The following outcomes were achieve:
ERC Planning Grant Workshop
Project team members attended the 2021 Engineering Research Centers Planning Grant Workshop (virtually) on September 21, September 27, and October 5, 2021 to fully understand the four pillars of an ERC, and the convergent nature of the research expected in Gen-IV ERCs.
1st Stakeholder Meeting
The first stakeholder meeting of the ERC Planning Grant committee was held on March 23-24, 2022 in Clemson, SC. This meeting was held concurrently with the Spring 2022 General Meeting of the Center for Advanced Power Engineering and Research (CAPER), which is a collaboration among three universities (UNC Charlotte, NC State University, and Clemson University) and industry members focusing on research and educational needs in the electric power industry in the southeast region of the US. CAPER holds two General Meetings each year, spring and fall, each hosted by a member University. In attendance are CAPER researchers and students along with industry and government representatives to present current industry topics, update sponsored projects and take part in discussions about the Center’s research and education activities.
This was a hybrid meeting with both in-person and virtual attendees. There were 91 total attendees, including 22 faculty members, 37 industry professionals, and 32 Students.
Faculty and students were mostly representing the three partner institutions (UNC Charlotte, NC State University, and Clemson University). Industry representatives were primarily from companies like Duke Energy, Quanta Technologies, EPRI, Dominion Energy, and Siemens Energy. Other participants were from US DOE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NREL, Iowa State University, and Syracuse University.
The meeting theme was: “Rapid Decarbonization Impacts on the Electric Grid.” The plenary session was titled: “The Zero Carbon Grid of the Future and led by co-PI - Dr. Johan Enslin of Clemson University.
2nd Stakeholder Meeting
The second stakeholder meeting took place on June 6, 2022 in Charlotte, NC. There were 17 attendees representing the three partner universities in the project (UNC Charlotte, NC State University and Clemson University), plus two additional universities, namely, NCA&T University and Syracuse University.
At the end of the 2nd stakeholder meeting, a consensus was reached on a vision statement, a mission statement, as well as a three-plane diagram for the planned ERC. A preliminary proposal has been submitted to NSF in response to solicitation NSF 22-580.
Last Modified: 12/31/2022
Modified by: Badrul H Chowdhury
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