Georgia utility Southern Company is teaming up with Georgia Tech and Smart Wires to roll out a US Department of Energy (DOE)-backed project aimed at boosting Georgia’s electric grid.
The initiative, which kicks off in 2025, will bring advanced power flow control (APFC) and dynamic line rating (DLR) technologies to the grid, making it easier to integrate renewable energy and more rapidly accommodate new demand.
Georgia Tech’s Center for Distributed Energy is heading up the project. The DOE chose it in November 2021 as one of four projects for grid-enhancing technology (GET) funding. GET is designed to improve grid reliability, maximize existing infrastructure, and speed up the connection of renewable power.
The project will use Smart Wires’ APFC, called SmartValve, alongside its DLR software, known as SUMO. Together, they’ll develop control algorithms to optimize grid usage and help these solutions work better in tandem.
Tim Lieuwen, interim executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech, called the project “an important step toward more efficient and reliable integration of cleaner energy sources.” He highlighted the collaboration’s potential to test innovative ways to manage the grid in Georgia by combining APFC and DLR technologies.
This will be the first large-scale deployment that combines both APFC and DLR, and the project will assess how they work together to improve efficiency. Basically, SUMO monitors real-time weather conditions to identify when power lines have extra capacity, while SmartValve can redirect power to those lines to take advantage of that extra space. On the flip side, if it’s a hot day and lines are strained, SmartValve can shift power to circuits with more room, reducing the risk of issues and keeping operations running smoothly.
What’s more, SmartValves are mobile and can be installed in just a week. That means they can be moved around to meet changing system needs, without long outages.
The project includes a one-year performance period to give Southern Company hands-on experience that could help other utilities adopt similar solutions and expand the use of grid-enhancing tech across the US.
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