It is hard to overstate the stakes in Clemson University’s work on one of the globe’s greatest engineering marvels, an invention so fundamental to 21st century life that most people notice it only when it fails– and then it’s impossible to ignore.
The electric grid cools homes, charges phones, powers factories, illuminates classrooms, supports lifesaving care in hospitals and keeps us all out of the darkness when the sun sets.
With the grid facing rising demand, Clemson’s electrical engineers are working with partners to ensure that power keeps flowing through the grid’s more than 600,000 miles of transmission lines.
Those Clemson electrical engineers include some of the globe’s most renowned authorities on power systems and power electronics.
Johan Enslin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, said pressure on the grid is already shaping decisions for utilities, industries and researchers.
“This is not just academics and research guys worrying about this,” said Enslin, who is president of the IEEE Power Electronics Society. “This is real now.”
Energy-saving devices such as LED lights helped keep power demand nearly flat for about 20 years, but now it is rising again. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts demand to increase 1.3% this year and another 3.1% in 2027.
Kevin Tomsovic, the Duke Energy Chair in Smart Grid Technology, said that data centers are causing a sudden increase in demand, but many other factors from manufacturing to transportation are also playing a role.
“If you take a little broader look, there’s really a whole process of electrification,” said Tomsovic, a member of the National Academy of Engineering. “Other large loads are electrifying. Some of that has already happened, such as using arc furnaces to melt steel.”
It’s not just demand putting pressure on the grid. The weather is becoming more extreme, from wildfires that tear through California to hurricanes that ravage the Carolinas.
At the same time, expanding the grid’s capacity isn’t as simple as putting up a few new power poles. Utilities are charged with providing reliable power at the lowest possible cost and have had little economic or regulatory incentive for years to make major expansions to the grid’s capacity.
Now that demand is back on the upswing, grid expansion faces some of the same challenges as many other industrial-scale construction projects: rising costs, supply chain issues and few landowners wanting to relinquish rights of way or have new transmission lines installed near their back yards.
Not only that but the grid has to keep power flowing even as it is upgraded, said Ramtin Hadidi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
“One of my colleagues at a utility says it well,” Hadidi said. “The grid and its upgrade to meet new loads is like you are living in your house and you are fixing your house at the same time. The caveat is that you want everything to remain the same as before, without any inconvenience, but you are still fixing your house.”
“The grid and its upgrade to meet new loads is like you are living in your house and you are fixing your house at the same time. The caveat is that you want everything to remain the same as before, without any inconvenience, but you are still fixing your house.”
Ramtin Hadidi
To meet the challenge, Clemson works closely with partners that include utilities, industry, national laboratories, government and academia across the country to develop and test the technologies needed to make the grid stronger, smarter and more resilient.
Their work is helping wring as much electricity as possible out of the existing grid, while helping shape how the grid of the future will work.
Some research, for example, focuses on how new power electronics can be plugged into the grid, while other work explores how utilities can better monitor the system, predict problems and keep power flowing when the grid is under stress.
The cutting-edge research provides students with hands-on experience that helps prepare them to modernize and run the grid.
Researchers have the benefit of working in unique world-class facilities, including the Duke Energy eGRID electric grid emulator, which is housed in the Dominion Energy Innovation Center.
Hai Xiao, chair of the Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said Clemson’s strength is its ability to bring together faculty expertise, world-class facilities and industry partnerships to address one of the nation’s most urgent infrastructure challenges.
“Modernizing the grid will require new ideas, new technologies and a new generation of engineers prepared to lead,” Xiao said. “Clemson is helping provide all three. Our faculty, students and partners are working together to build a stronger, smarter and more resilient energy future.”
Coming Wednesday: Learn how the Duke Energy eGRID gives utilities, manufacturers and researchers a place to test new grid equipment under real-world conditions without putting the real grid at risk.
