Control Theory

Achieving the goals of the Grid Modernization Multi-Year Program Plan requires significant advancements beyond the current state of the technology and innovations in several interrelated areas:

• Synergistic Development of Control Theory and System Architecture, where we are creating concrete directions for theoretical development. To achieve transferable, resilient, and deployable control solutions, we are leveraging the expertise and experience of our industry partners to co-develop control approaches and theory along with control, communications, and information system architectures.  These architectures are economically deployable and resilient against natural or malicious events.
• Theory for Hierarchical, Decentralized, Distributed and Risk-Aware Control, where theory is developed that enables the design and analysis of control algorithms for at least 10,000 distributed energy resources embedded in distribution and transmission networks.  The control framework is open, flexible, and interoperable as well as exhibits “plug and play” features, supporting dynamic system configuration.
• At-Scale Testing by Simulation, which validates performance of the developed control solutions and fosters development of transition plans for industry demonstrations.  Test methods, scenarios, and protocols are being developed in collaboration with industry partners to ensure relevance to industry operating conditions and requirements.  Testing results will be shared and vetted with a wide set of industry stakeholders such as utilities and software developers.