Dive Brief:
- The New York Power Authority (NYPA) last week announced an ambitious goal on its path to becoming the "first fully digital utility" — committing to develop a digital, real‑time simulation model of the state's entire transmission system by the end of this year.
- Once complete, the Advanced Grid Innovation Laboratory for Energy (AGILe) network will utilize new computing models to simulate the implementation of new technologies and to assist with the commercialization of emerging technologies.
- Almost a year ago, NYPA struck a deal with GE to help the grid operator with its digitization plans at 16 generating facilities along 1,400 miles of transmission lines as well as in the more than 1,000 public buildings it monitors in the state.
Dive Insight:
As NYPA works to bring more renewable and advanced energy technologies online, the grid operator says it will use AGILe to simulate the impacts before deployment and evaluate their effects on reliability, performance and resiliency.
It's all part of the utility's plan to collect and analyze data across its entire system as it looks to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint. NYPA will get help with modeling from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in order to bring together a range of clean energy resources on both sides of the meter.
The efforts are "part of the industry-leading effort to make wind, solar, storage and customer resources (like flexible loads, batteries and electric vehicle charging) all part of an integrated grid," Mark McGranaghan, EPRI's vice president of distribution and energy utilization, said in a statement.
Once the first phase of development at the lab is completed, NYPA officials say researchers from government, industry and academia will be able to use advanced computing methods to simulate the implementation of new technologies. They say AGILe will focus "particularly on advanced transmission applications, cybersecurity solutions, sensors, substation automation and power-electronics controller technologies."
According to the power authority, New York's transmission owners and other key stakeholders have all agreed to conduct collaborative research with NYPA at AGILe, and approximately $20 million has been approved for implementation and lab activities so far.
NYPA has also developed an Integrated Smart Operations Center at its White Plains, N.Y. offices, where it runs more than 400 applications, constantly generating and analyzing 24,000 data points from sensors that monitor up and down the system of production and transmission of electricity.
