Grid Labs Connecting Research to Field Implementation

Reduce the impacts of climate-induced disasters and transition the legacy power grid to a modernized grid of the future, the power engineers are diligently developing, testing, and demonstrating new technologies and solutions. Grid labs play a critical role in this transition as they make it possible to evaluate and validate cutting-edge technologies before deployment and further help shorten the gap between research and field implementation. Grid labs can potentially include a wide range of resources and applications, from real-time digital simulators to power/control hardware-in-the-loop capabilities, to distributed energy resources, and protection and monitoring equipment. Offering the opportunity to train the workforce is another significant benefit of grid labs. This panel offers a fresh perspective on how grid labs can provide the much-needed foundation for agile innovation and link the research conducted in academia/national labs to practical field implementations.