Chattanooga Engineers Club Monthly Meeting
Joint meeting with ChaTech
Monday, March 14, 2022 @12 noon
Zoom event link provided after registration in confirmation and reminder emails before the event
EPB & ORNL Building a Smarter Grid
Speaker: Ben Ollis, Research Associate, ORNL
In 2014, EPB signed a memorandum of understanding to work with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, allowing Department of Energy researchers to connect with EPB's fiber network that runs both its smart electric grid and the nation's first citywide high-speed broadband internet network.
Using EPB's fiber-optic network and smart grid in Chattanooga, ORNL scientists here are able to remotely and virtually test ways to better deploy the power grid to maintain reliable electricity supplies in a cleaner, more efficient manner.
Over the past seven years since ORNL began working with EPB, the Chattanooga utility has supported significant amount of DOE research projects.
At the ORNL Hardin Valley campus of the ORNL, researchers have developed the Commander test bed to perform research on secure controls and hardware for local networked power grids called microgrids. DOE is now funding and will soon install new lithium-ion batteries for EPB to help the local power company better store and deploy energy from its own community solar project on Holtzclaw Avenue and to aid in creating a more robust network of microgrids for the solar array at the Chattanooga airport.
A team led by research and development senior staff member Joshua New at ORNL developed a model for every building in Chattanooga based upon its age, type and size. The data from the smart grid is being used to assess the model's predictions.
Additional information and online access will be provided.
The event will qualify for 1 PDH.