A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has just been released, titled "Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation’s Electricity System". ECE Associate Professor Dionysios Aliprantis served as a member of the report committee, which included power system experts from academia, industry, state government agencies, and other organizations. This independent assessment of the US transmission and distribution system was mandated by the US Department of Energy. As all National Academies reports, the report carries significant weight, and can impact state and national policy.

The report focuses on the ability of the power grid to ride through and recover from large-scale long-duration power outages, which is termed resiliency. Even though such disturbances are relatively rare, they cannot be completely avoided due to the enormous complexity of the power grid and the countless ways in which it can be disrupted. The modern world runs on electricity; when such outages occur, economic costs run in the billions of dollars, and human lives are at stake. The report identifies the wide array of physical phenomena and man-made threats, such as hurricanes or cyber-attacks, that are the root causes of such outages. It then proceeds with strategies for designing and operating a more resilient electricity system, including technological solutions such as distributed energy resources and microgrids, which is one of the core research areas of the ECE Power and Energy Systems group.

"Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System" Report