EAGER: Blackout: An educational experiment in gaming the power grid

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Power grids are getting dramatically more complex, as they reorganize around market mechanisms and become increasingly coupled with the environment. This rising level of complexity poses a challenge to the engineering education community, which currently does not have an appropriate vehicle to teach how to approach the design and regulation of large-scale infrastructures. Building on the proven educational benefits provided by games, the researchers propose to address the need for a new instrument by developing Blackout, a persistent, web browser-based, multiplayer online game about dynamic markets for electric power.Intellectual MeritThis project focuses on concept development for Blackout, in collaboration with an experienced game design professional with a proven track record. This design process emphasizes rules and play experience instead of other, often more costly aspects of game development, such as art, programming, marketing, documentation, and so on. The researchers and graduate students will be actively involved at various stages of this iterative design process, and draw on their respective expertise in distributed control systems and pricing, and power system dynamics and control, to specify the objectives and ensure that the rules of play and environment, while simplified, retain the main essential features and challenges as real power systems. At the conclusion of concept development, the researchers anticipate the creation of a working multiplayer prototype, playable from a remote Web browser. Broader ImpactsIf successful, games like Blackout will play a significant role in raising the public awareness about the challenges and significance of infrastructure design and regulation, and in training the next generation of engineers and scientists. The final prototype game will be made available online to the general public and the research community. The project will provide an opportunity for the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students and will result in a teaching vehicle that is likely to help engage nontraditional engineering students.