Smart grids have the potential to revolutionise and revitalise energy supplies in rural communities, according to researchers at Penn State University.

The power systems can incorporate sustainable energy systems such as wind power, adjust to demands on the fly and evolve to incorporate emerging technologies such as electric vehicle charging stations, but companies may be hesitant to implement them due to potential cost or unknown ramifications.

With the goal of alleviating those uncertainties, the US government’s Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC at www.arc.gov) has provided a multi-state collaboration with $10m to develop and deploy services that let electric utility companies and energy tech start-ups model and test different scenarios before implementation.

Tennessee Tech University is leading the three-year project across Appalachia, with partners in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Tennessee. Multiple partners and industry stakeholders are matching the ARC grant, resulting in more than $20m in total funding for the project. ARC is a federal-state partnership that works to develop sustainable economic opportunities in the region.

The Penn State team, with $750,000 from the ARC grant and additional support from the university, will focus on bolstering the resilience of Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative’s power grid, which provides electricity to almost 20,000 people across 13,000 square kilometres, including in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, McKean, Cameron and Clinton counties.

“This initiative to expand smart grid modelling services to more electric cooperatives and utilities is instrumental in ensuring that the power grid can adapt to the evolving energy landscape, where renewable sources play an increasingly vital role in our energy future,” said Peter Idowu, professor of electrical engineering at Penn State Harrisburg and principal investigator on Penn State’s contributions to the project. “This will enable electric energy delivery and service units to evaluate technologies and determine the impact of distributed energy resources as they generate, store or consume electricity when integrated with modernised electric grids.”

Each collaborator will focus on a different aspect of the modelling services, from battery use and sustainable resources to grid resiliency and mitigating storm damage. The Hilltop+ microgrid simulation platform, originally prototyped by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory, will serve as a virtual safe space. Rural electric utilities will be able to model and test different scenarios to gain confidence in deploying smart grid technologies, according to the researchers.

“We know that Appalachia regions are often left behind in advanced technologies in several ways,” Idowu said. “These areas are remote and generally small without the resources needed to adapt smart grids, especially if they don’t know how they will work in their specific network.”

With the processing power and speed of Hilltop+, Idowu said the researchers would be able to model scenarios as close to real as possible. If a storm topples a tree on powerlines in Potter County, for example, the team can assess to millionths of a second what issues that may cause downstream and how to best mitigate the power loss through alternative sources.

“We’re providing the framework for regional utilities to develop their grid,” Idowu said.

The team will work closely with Tri-County to understand what specific difficulties they face in providing accessible, affordable energy to their customers.

“They tell us what matters to them, and we’re helping them understand what their network could look like,” he said. “What happens if they put a charging station in one spot over another? If they incorporate windmills? They can start to assess their situation and see what their best grid will look like before making decisions and committing the resources.”

The researchers said energy tech start-ups would also benefit from Hilltop+ grid modelling services, as it would let them develop and virtually test their smart grid hardware and software for scalability and interoperability.

“The current project is a second phase of a project that started a few years ago as a partnership between MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Tennessee Tech,” said Vahid Motevalli, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs at Penn State Harrisburg. “Inviting Penn State to participate in the second phase of this project is a testimony to the electric power laboratory and expertise at Penn State Harrisburg and the extensive collaborative contribution of our research group across three campuses of Penn State.”

The Penn State (www.psu.edu) team includes co-principal investigators Habib Ullah, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Penn State Harrisburg; Nilanjan Ray Chaudhuri, associate professor of electrical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, University Park; Yunting Liu, assistant professor of electrical engineering in the College of Engineering, University Park; and Mohammad Rasouli, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend.

“This multi-campus project is an excellent illustration of how Penn State, through the sharing of research and faculty expertise, makes a positive impact on communities within Pennsylvania and well beyond,” said Sherri Kermanshachi, associate vice chancellor for research at Penn State Harrisburg.

ARC’s funding for the programme was made available through its Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (Arise), which fosters regional economic transformation through multi-state collaboration. Additional information about ARC’s Arise funding opportunity for multi-state collaboration is available at www.arc.gov/grants-and-opportunities/arise.