WVU Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering students Partha Sarker, Paroma Chatterjee and Jannatul Adan discuss a power grid simulation project led by Anurag Srivastava, professor and department chair, in GOLab.
(WVU Photo/Brian Persinger)
The power grid faces a growing barrage of threats that could trigger a butterfly effect—floods, superstorms, heat waves, cyberattacks, not to mention ballooning in complexity and size—that the nation is unprepared for. treated, according to one West Virginia University scientist.
But Anurag Srivastavaprofessor and chairman of Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineeringhas plans to prevent and respond to potential power grid failures, thanks to a pair of research projects funded by the National Science Foundation.
“On the net, we have the butterfly effect,” Srivastava said. “This means that if a butterfly flaps its wings in Florida, it will cause a windstorm in Connecticut because things are connected synchronously, like dominoes. In the power grid, states like Florida, Connecticut, Illinois and West Virginia are all part of the Eastern Interconnection and connected together.
“If a big event happens in the deep south, it will cause a problem in the north. To stop this, we need to find out the problem area as soon as possible and gracefully isolate that part so that the disturbance does not spread to the whole.
With more than $1.3 million in combined funding, Srivastava and researchers are tackling two converging studies that aim to transform the response to the power grid crisis. One involves a major grant from NSF’s Future of Work at Human-Technology Frontier program and the other is a joint project grant awarded by NSF and the German Research Foundation.
One study focuses on adaptation: software that is able to work with non-centralized information from the entire network to make, in some cases, its own decisions about the appropriate response to a problem in the power network. The other study develops an advanced tool to train human network operators to deal with large amounts of information and track whether they are introducing information overload.
Srivastava’s research will enable flexible, accurate and rapid response by both network infrastructures and human network operators in crisis situations. It starts with his development of adaptioN software. The name refers to “secure data-driven holonic control and optimization for networked cyber-physical system”.
When faced with a potential threat, adaptioN software will autonomously isolate and quarantine problematic parts of the network, preventing those sections from spreading chaos. In addition, adaptioN will use distributed intelligence sharing to defend against cyber attacks, closing a major hole in national security preparedness.
The US grid is much more complex than it was a few decades ago, something Srivastava attributes to the competitive electricity market created in the late 1990s and the rise of small-scale energy sources like home solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations, both. which have confused the routes that the energy takes from the plant to the substation to the consumer.
Intelligently controlling the tidal wave of information produced at multiple points across the network would be a game changer, and while adaptioN is part of making that happen, there is another, equally crucial step. Srivastava’s team will establish the Grid Operation Lab in Evansdale, a state-of-the-art cyber-physical-human system simulation laboratory that will be a working, scalable model of a power grid control room.
In GOLab, approximately 60 energy engineering students will play the role of control operators in simulated crisis scenarios. Advanced operational tools will provide information. If they receive too much information, they will not be able to process it effectively. If they get too little, they will make wrong calls.
In a training and testing process inspired by spacecraft flight simulators, operators will be strapped and surrounded by sensors that assess their cognitive performance by tracking electrical responses of their skin and eye movements. Srivastava and his team will determine the conditions under which an operator’s alertness decreases and fatigue sets in.
Network operators must maintain an unrelenting intensity of focus on large data flows. To maintain continuity of awareness, Srivastava said, operators typically work 12-hour shifts. Each operator works at a separate desk with a unique responsibility.
“One might focus on the flow of energy from state to state,” Srivastava said, “while someone else focuses on voltage levels. Someone else is constantly doing what we call ‘security analysis’ — running ‘what if?’ scenarios. They all have to talk to each other and their neighbors in other control rooms whenever they see a problem.”
As the operators set up their roles in the simulations, Srivastava will track their responses to the flow of information. He will first fine-tune student tracking and analysis, then bring in 30 experienced professional operators to work with collaborators and validate the technology.
Whether it’s a wildfire, cyber attack, fuel shortage or winter storm, Srivastava knows the next US power grid crisis will trigger a cascade of high-speed alerts, cross-communications, shutdowns automated and uncoordinated individual responses. He believes the scenario will play out very differently, as his research has led control network operators into the eye of the information storm.
-WVU-
mm/09/07/22
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