Eversource Energy Center at UConn taps Gridmetrics to assist in power-grid resilience project
New England Council member, Eversource has chosen a company that tracks energy availability in Louisville, Colorado, to participate in a $4.4 million community power grid resilience project. This project will be at the Eversource Energy Center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Gridmetrics, the company chosen, is a subsidiary of a research and development lab for the broadband industry called CableLabs. The subsidiary uses existing broadband infrastructure to monitor power usage down to the last mile of the electric distribution grid and uses a Power Event Notification System (PENS) to provide power outage notifications. Eversource selected Gridmetrics for the Grid Overhaul with Proactive, High-speed Undergrounding for Reliability, Resilience, and Security (GOPHURRS) program, which is part of the DoE’s $33 million Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) program. This symbolizes the first effort to use Gridmetrics’ proprietary data to better inform communities’ energy resilience.
Kazem Kazerounian, the dean of engineering at UConn, stressed the project’s importance in getting academia and industry to work together for future sustainability. The Gridmetrics project will initially focus on Eversource Energy distribution feeders in Hartford and West Hartford that will better protect at-risk populations in central Connecticut. UConn awarded its first RACER grant in the fall of 2022, prioritizing research on big projects that will mitigate climate change.
The New England Council congratulates Eversource on contributing to energy security and resilience.
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