The Office of Electricity (OE) announced the selection of Southern Company Services to lead a $2.4M project on the R&D of advanced distribution communication and control technologies. It will enhance the security of the electric distribution system.
June 27, 2024
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Strengthening grid reliability and security by enhancing critical system communication
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) today announced the selection of Southern Company Services to lead a $2.4 million project focusing on the research, development, and demonstration of advanced distribution communication and control technologies. The project will enhance the security of the electric distribution system, especially in preventing, detecting, and responding to disruptions in critical information flows.
As grid communication demands and information security risks rise, modernizing grid communications systems with integrated security becomes essential. Digital twins, or detailed software models of physical systems, will play a key role in this modernization, enabling utilities to understand weaknesses, detect problems quickly, and address them effectively without risking the operational grid.
As a result, this investment will help:
- Keep Your Lights On: Improved grid security and reliability means fewer blackouts and outages for consumers.
- Keep You Safe: Fewer power disruptions that affect critical services like hospitals, emergency response systems, and public transportation translate to beneficial impacts to public health and safety.
- Keep Power Affordable: When utilities spend less time and money responding to grid disruptions, customers will benefit from efficiency of operations.
“This project will improve the reliability, resilience, and security of the electric grid, and lessons learned will provide insights on how electric utilities can adopt digital twins to better understand, protect, and operate their systems as the grid transforms,” said Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity. “OE is excited to enter this next stage of our collaborative relationship with a leading electric utility.”
The Southern Company’s Schatz Grid Visualization and Analytics Center will house this work. The facility is named after Joe Schatz, the company’s former power delivery R&D manager, who was instrumental in both establishing Southern Company’s ability to use operational grid data for research and development (R&D) and their partnership with OE.
The project is titled "Cognitive Digital Twin for the Development of Secure and Resilient Smart Grid Cyber-Physical Systems". Other project partners include the Virginia Tech Power and Energy Center, GE Research, and OPAL-RT Corporation.
Funding award is contingent upon completion of successful negotiations.
Learn more about OE.