Grid Sensing and Measurement Strategy

The nation's electric system is going through a major transformation with the integration of a large number of devices at the edge (DER, electric vehicles, storage, etc.), a major shift in fuel and generation mix, an aging infrastructure, and added risk of extreme events on the system. The power system which once provided electric power from central power plants to distributed loads using high voltage transmission and lower voltage distribution networks now consists of distributed generation and energy storage as well as conventional and renewable generation sources throughout the system.

These issues require an ability to measure and characterize the state of the system at much higher fidelity and resolution than ever before, from generation through end-use. A cohesive strategy to develop and deploy low-cost, multi-modal sensing and monitoring devices with improved accuracy will be a foundation to achieve this goal. Equally important is minimizing measurement uncertainty and ensuring adequate deployment coverage for complete observability of the power system with the final piece of getting the measurements to the control systems via a robust, secure and resilient communications system. Therefore, the focus of this work is on an approach to define the requisite parameters to measure, devices needed to measure these parameters, communication requirements to transfer data, the ability to manage the data and turn data into actionable information. Public-private partnerships will be leveraged to identify measurement requirements along with associated data management and communication systems.