Science and Power Directorates Collaborate to Deliver Faster, More Accurate Simulations
WASHINGTON, DC – Two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) agencies have awarded $6 million in funding to a research project for a first-of-its-kind partnership to strengthen the nation’s preparedness for multiple power supply disruption events and help U.S. power grid operators respond faster to crises.
Under a new partnership, DOE’s Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) and DOE’s Office of Electricity (OE) will guide research at five national laboratories across the country.
“OE and the Office of Science are working together to address the need for faster computation of vast amounts of data on the electric grid,” said Jean Rodriguez, DOE Under Secretary for Power. “OE has expertise in the rapidly changing dynamics of the electric grid, and the Office of Science has expertise in computer science research. The results of this work will help grid operators plan and implement solutions to strengthen the reliability of the U.S. electric grid and ensure affordable access to clean energy for all Americans.”
The rise of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power benefits U.S. consumers, industry and the environment. But the integration of highly variable and hard-to-predict distributed generation sources brings new challenges to the nation’s power grid. Electric transmission and distribution grids are made up of millions of elements whose states change on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis, making simulations extremely complex.
“These grants fill gaps in our understanding of the computational algorithms that enable faster, more accurate grid simulations that utilities need to ensure greater reliability, robustness against disruptive events and efficiency,” said Selene Susat, DOE’s associate administrator for Advanced Scientific Computing Research.
About SciDAC
This is all part of the ongoing efforts of the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program. Since 2001, SciDAC has been lowering the barriers to harnessing the world’s greatest computing resources to enable scientific breakthroughs through partnerships made up of applied mathematicians, computer scientists, and scientists from other disciplines.
“As the newest SciDAC partner, OE joins all six research programs in the Office of Science and the Office of Nuclear Energy in this collaborative effort,” Susut said.
Since its inception, the SciDAC model has accelerated the pace of scientific discovery, and now in its fourth cycle, SciDAC continues to address the mathematical and computational challenges associated with predictive modeling and high-fidelity simulation, the generation and management of large datasets, increasing demands for scientific reliability, and the expected disruption of computer architectures.
Although SciDAC is a partnership between SC programs, it is built around a collaborative team of experts from national laboratories, universities, and other research institutions. This approach not only leverages the broadest range of expertise, but also makes the resulting tools and methods available to the broader research community.
Machine learning, new algorithms
The two awards address complementary challenges: one applies machine learning and new mathematical algorithms to optimize power grid operations under multiple disruptive events, while the other focuses on how to rapidly obtain accurate forecasts from supercomputers so grid operators can control the flow of power in response to sudden changes in generation and demand.
The project was selected through competitive peer review under DOE National Laboratory Funding Announcement LAB 24-3310. Total funding for the project, which will run for up to three years, is $6 million, with $1.5 million in FY 2024 funding and funding thereafter dependent on Congressional appropriations.
For a list of projects and more information, see the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program home page.
A selection for grant negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to award a grant or provide funding. Before funds are awarded, DOE and the applicant will go through a negotiation process during which DOE may discontinue negotiations and revoke the selection for any reason.
