Dive Brief:

• Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are working on new ways for utilities to measure in real time the health of the distribution grid as it incorporates varying types distributed and centralized generation. 
• Funded by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency, researchers are using microsynchrophasors to study the integration of solar energy by examining grid data in real-time.
• California Institute for Energy and Environment and LBNL have deployed the microsynchrophasor technology to four (still unnamed) utilities they are partnering with on the project, in addition to one transformer station.

Dive Insight:

As part of a $4 million grant from ARPA-E in 2012 that went to the University of California at Berkley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is working with synchrophasor technology that has been deployed at the transmission level in an attempt to utilize it on a distribution grid. The phasor measurement units, as the synchrophasors are also known, are being used on a broader scale to examine transmission data in micro-second units to potentially help avoid another blackout similar to 2003. Researchers believe that if applied to the utility level, they could help integrate solar power.

According to Greentech Media, the microsynchrophasor could not only help to smooth the quality of solar power flowing into the grid, but it could assist utilities monitoring and repairing outages as well as helping keep utility workers safe as they address problems.

“We envision a world where we’ll have applications built on the measurement system itself,” Emma Stewart, an engineer in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Berkeley Labs, told Greentech Media. “We’re looking at applications on top of that, things like cybersecurity analysis and predictive analysis of things like demand response.”