Research
Storage & Delivery
Securing our Energy Storage and Delivery Infrastructure Research Projects: |
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Title:The Future Florida Grid: Ensuring a Reliable and Resilient Electrical Energy Transmission and Delivery System in a Changing Environment |
| PI: Steinar Dale Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Co-PIs: Tom Baldwin, Omar Faruque, James Langston, Peter McLaren, Rick Meeker, Karl Schoder, Mischa Steurer | |
| Description: The project research goal is to address the challenges of the reliable flow of electrical energy throughout the state as the power system is transformed to include significantly more renewable and alternative sources, possible expansion of new very-large centralized base load (nuclear), and incorporation of new power conversion, transmission, measurement, communication and control technologies (smart grid). This project has also supported ongoing participation and contributions in national, state, and local power and energy stakeholder groups, including the Gridwise Alliance, the North American Synchrophasor Initiative (NASPI), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) National Energy Committee, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power Engineering Society (PES), Florida’s Great Northwest Alternative Energy Advisory Council, and the Tallahassee-Leon Economic Development Council (EDC) Energy and Environment Roundtable. | |
| Budget: $359,642 | |
| University: FSU | |
| This project has been completed | |
| November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Microgrids for a Sustainable Energy Future |
| PI: Chris S. Edrington Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Co-PIs: H. Li, J. Ordonez, J. Zheng, M. Steurer | |
| Description: The primary aim of the project was to address R&D in the area of microgrids. Specifically the focus was in the area of PV and PHEV integration, microgrid modeling and control, grid-tying inverters/converters, energy storage, tri-generation, and standards development for smart grids. | |
| Budget: $719,333 | |
| Universities: FSU | |
| This project has been completed | |
| November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Real-Time Power Quality Study for Sustainable Energy Systems |
| PI: U. Meyer-Baese Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Co-PIs: Helen Li, Simon Foo, Anke Meyer-Baese, Juan Ordonez | |
| Description: The main objective of this project is the collection of preliminary data for IESES proposals that can be used to seek local, national and international sources of external funding from private and government sponsors. The overall project has been split up in several independent subprojects to allow a timely completion of the tasks. All tasks have been completed successfully. | |
| Budget: $15,000 | |
| Universities: FSU | |
| This project has been completed | |
| November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Optimization, Robustness, and Equilibrium Modeling for the Florida Smart Grid |
| PI: Panos Pardalos Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description: The purpose of this research is to develop models and algorithms for optimal design and functioning of the nation’s next generation power transmission and distribution system that will incorporate the new realities of the grid. Our goal is to create innovative real time capabilities for 1) optimal functioning of renewable energy sources (location, charging, discharging of batteries, etc.), 2) detecting and preventing instabilities and outages, and 3) operating models including generalized Nash equilibrium. | |
| This project began in January 2011. | |
| Budget: $30,000 | |
| University: UF | |
| This project has been completed. | |
| November 2012 Annual Report November 2011 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Advancing Knowledge of Network Theory for Analysis and Design of Smart Power Grids |
| PI: Svetlana V. Poroseva (Now at the University of New Mexico | |
| Co-PIs: Yousuff Hussaini, Per Arne Rikvold | |
| Description: With power grids evolving towards increasing size, complexity, and integration, it has become more difficult to describe and predict their behavior, even under normal operational conditions. With technological development, climate change, and activities in the political arena, adverse circumstances (natural disasters, intelligent adversary, software design errors, human errors, etc.) have become more probable and costly events. The Project seeks to provide industry and government with advanced analytical and computational tools necessary for the automated evaluation of the structural resilience and reliability of power grids. The potential applications of the Project’s results go beyond power grids. Any infrastructure essential to our society and economy (e.g., computer, communication, transportation) can benefit from the Project’s results. | |
| Budget: $15,000 | |
| Universities: FSU | |
| This project has been completed | |
| November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report |
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Title:Investigating the Effect of Appliance Interface Design on Energy-Use Behavior |
| PI: Paul Ward (no longer at FSU) | |
| Co-PIs: Ian Douglas, David Eccles | |
| Description: The primary objective of this research project is to identify the behavioral factors that contribute to energy in/efficiency in the home. In particular, this project was designed to (a) examine current state-of the science on behavioral factors that affect energy efficiency, (b) report on the efficiency of typical energy consuming technology used in the home as well as existing programs designed to improve efficiency, and (b) investigate the types of human-technology interactions and other behavioral factors that lead to in/efficient energy use. To achieve these objectives this project uses laboratory-based experimental and field-based methods to (i) identify interface-design factors that constrain individuals to behave in locally optimal but globally sub-optimal ways, and (ii) survey how cognitive, technological, and motivational behavioral issues affect use in the home environment. | |
| Budget: $163,949 | |
| Universities: FSU | |
| This project has been completed | |
| November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Energy Delivery Infrastructures |
| PI: Lee Stefanakos Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Co-PIs: Zhixin Miao | |
| Description: The proposed project is to simulate the effects of a renewable energy generation system in a microgrid context to the distribution grid system. The proposed project is to simulate the combination of renewable distributed generation and a battery system to assess the effects during critical conditions such as power system peak.A research opportunity is to investigate how existing tools can be applied to properly representing dynamic and transient behaviors of microgrids. Therefore, in this project we propose using simulation tools to model a microgrid and investigate how well we can reproduce its measured behavior in the field. | |
| Budget: $485,184 | |
| Universities: USF | |
| This project has been completed. | |
| May 2013 Progress Report November 2012 Progress Report November 2011 Annual Report May 2010 Progress Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Progress Report |
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Title:Micro Battery Defense Development |
| PI: Chunlei Wang Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description:The microbattery market for new miniature portable electronic devices such as cardiac pacemakers, hearing aids, smart cards, personal gas monitors, micro electromechanical system (MEMS) devices, embedded monitors, and remote sensors with RF capability is increasing rapidly. Thin-film lithium batteries are among the most advanced battery systems that can scale down to the dimensions that match the MEMS devices. However, these two-dimensional (2D) batteries are necessarily thin in order to maintain effective transport of Li ions. In order to power MEMS devices with limited device area (areal ‘footprints’), batteries must somehow make good use of their thickness. Three-dimensional (3D) configurations offer a means to keep transport distances short and yet provide enough material such that the batteries can power MEMS devices for extended periods of time. In this project, we focus on developing functional 3D microbatteries based on our carbon microelectromechanical systems (C-MEMS) technique. These microbatteries could offer order of magnitude increases in electrode surface area and charging capability than thin film batteries at the same size scale. | |
| Budget: $192,418.30 (not funded by FESC) | |
| University: FIU | |
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Title:Electrostatic Spray Deposition of Nanostructured Porous Metal Oxide Composite |
| PI: Chunlei Wang Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description: Recently, conversion reactions of interstitial-free 3d metal oxide structures (such as CoO, CuO, and NiO) with structures unsuitable for intercalation chemistry have nevertheless been shown to exhibit large, rechargeable capacities in cells with lithium. The specific capacities of these materials, which are potential candidates for the negative electrode, can be as high as 1,000 mAhg-1 (about three times of commonly used graphitic carbons). However, practical implementation using these metal oxides is hampered by the large capacity loss of the first cycle and poor material cyclability. These problems are partially attributed to the significant volume changes that occur during lithium uptake and removal (molar volume change of 100%), which causes mechanical failure and the loss of electrical contact at the anode. They are also due to aggregation of metal nanoparticles that appears during the process of discharging the metal oxide anodes. In order to overcome these two challenges and develop excellent rate capabilities and high power densities of Li-ion batteries, metal oxide composite electrodes with hierarchical mixed conducting network structures will be synthesized. We propose the preparation and testing of multi-component metal oxide anode films with a variety of morphologies using a simple and versatile method based on the electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) technique. The ESD technique enables us to reproducibly fabricate thin film ceramic materials with simple, low-cost and controllable designed morphologies. ESD-derived ceramic thin films we obtained including 3-D reticular, spongy-like, hollow sphere, dense, etc morphologies. The structures of these films can be easily tailored by changing the precursor solution component(s) and adjusting the substrate temperature. In this project, we plan to fabricate porous metal oxide materials, MxOy (M=Fe, Co). Material characterization methods (such as: SEM, TEM, AFM, BET, etc) will be used to study the correlation between ESD parameters and surface morphologies. | |
| Budget:$88,378.711 (not funded by FESC) | |
| University: FIU | |
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Title:Fabrication and Investigation of Porous Tin Oxide Anodes for Li-Ion Micro Batteries |
| PI: Chunlei Wang Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description:The requirement of higher energy capacity microbatteries demands the exploitation of new substitute materials with higher energy capacity than traditional graphite. SnO2 has been considered as one of the most promising substitutes for the carbon anode in Li-ion batteries due to its high Li+ storage capacity. However, the practical application of SnO2 as anode is restricted by poor cyclability and rate capability due to large volume change during cycling, which can cause disintegration and electrical disconnection from current collector. In this project, we propose the preparation and testing of tin oxide anode films with a variety of porous morphologies using Electrostatic Spray Deposition (ESD) technique. Our research focus will be developing an ESD processing to fabricate tin oxide electrode with different pore sizes ranging from macropores to mesopores and down to micropores; constructing hierarchical porous tin oxide electrode by controlling process parameters and introducing a surfactant or polymer additives, and material characterization and electrochemical analysis in order to investigate the correlation between morphology and electrochemical performance and understand the underlying mechanism. The proposed research will significantly enhance our understanding of fundamental issues regarding intrinsic properties of porous SnO2 films as anode for Li-ion batteries. | |
| Budget:$100,000 (not funded by FESC) | |
| University: FIU | |
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Title: Very High Energy-Density Ultracapacitors |
| PI: Ezzat Bakhoum Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description: A new type of ultracapacitor that offers a capacitance density on the order of 500 Farads per cubic centimeter or higher has been created. The principle behind the new ultracapacitor structure is the insertion of a 100 nm-thick layer of barium strontium titanate as an interface between the activated carbon electrode and the electrolyte. The new ultracapacitors are highly needed in hybrid vehicle applications; as any significant increase in the energy storage capability of the ultracapacitors leads to substantial improvement in the fuel efficiency of hybrid vehicles. Two manuscripts about this new development were published in 2009. Additional research is ongoing. | |
| Budget: Not funded by FESC | |
| Universities: UWF | |
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Title:Secure Energy Systems |
| PI: Pramod Khargonekar Research Interests and Contact Information | |
| Description: The goal of this project is to investigate the concept of secure energy systems and formulate a concrete vision of a broad-based, comprehensive research program. An additional project goal is to develop architecture for modeling, analysis, and design of secure energy systems. An energy system consists of a collection of interconnected subsystems representing energy generation devices, energy consumption devices, transmission, distribution, and storage devices, and communications and computing devices. Such systems are dynamic and its operation is influenced by external perturbations. Definition of the system and it environment depends on the problem of interest. This project is motivated by strong interest among key decision makers in understanding and assuring security of energy systems in the face of various natural and man-made threats. Increasing penetration of renewable energy sources and capabilities offered by smart grid have the potential to enhance or degrade security of energy systems. Thus, these new developments present additional motivation for understanding of secure energy systems. Whereas there is an intuitive understanding of security and assurance, much work remains to be done in formulating precise definitions that cover problems of interest and devising an overall architecture that may facilitate a system level analysis and design of such secure energy systems. | |
| Taking into account rapid changes in the energy issues in a wide variety of private and public sectors, this project is a proactive effort to develop a vision and architecture for analysis and design of secure energy systems. It is expected that the results of this project will lead to future development and integration of specific analysis and design algorithms and software that will assist system designers in assessing and ensuring an appropriate level of system security.The term security can take on different meanings depending upon the context. There are risks associated with intentional disruption of the system (sabotage) and operational risks of the system (whether from physical failure of the plant, human error, or market-based instability). Both can pose short- and long-term national security risks for the electric energy system which consists of the basic elements: generation, transmission, distribution, the load (users); and the control system. These elements are the choke points and can cause great harm by causing outages and moderate-term disabling of important elements in the energy system. We present the security issue by considering the various elements of the energy system one-by-one. At the generation end, we consider the security of the power plant. The attacks on the power plant are mainly physical i.e. the attack on the pipelines which carry the gas or oil (input to the turbine), attacks on the manual valves (which can be opened/closed physically), physical security of a nuclear power plant is in itself a topic which has been extensively researched. Thus we start with the generation system and move onto the transmission system (transmission towers and lines), the distribution system (local transmission lines and substations), and finally the control system which connects all these elements. Network security at the plant level (the connection of the control system and SCADA to the physical components) has also been considered. | |
| Budget: $220,000 | |
| Universities: UF | |
| This project has been completed. | |
| November 2012 Progress Report November 2011 Annual Report November 2010 Annual Report May 2011 Semi-Annual Report |
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