I-Corps: Resilient Energy Solutions for Home Health Care

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发基于微电网技术的能源保证解决方案，该解决方案可用于缓解计划内和计划外停电(灾难)造成的停电。该技术特别旨在通过个人和企业主动采用即插即用能源枢纽来提高医疗设备、通信服务和关键业务的能源弹性，以便在发生重大基础设施故障时保持电力供应，而不完全依赖变得稀缺和过度扩张的公共服务投资。在美国，至少有300万人依靠电力获得呼吸机、CPAP、雾化器、电动轮椅等家庭医疗设备。这些人口的人口结构通常跨越不同的种族、收入水平、教育水平、城乡差距等。这一解决方案可能对全球产生重大影响。将最近在家中提供护理的趋势与人口老龄化结合起来，可能会在个人或家庭层面推动对能源弹性的需求，从而使拟议的解决方案具有相关性和必要性。该i-Corps项目基于开发一个小型能源枢纽，作为家庭或建筑层面关键基础设施的微电网。该枢纽的核心是一个基于自组织技术的微电网控制器，由物联网网格管理平台管理。自组织控制器和平台能够转换现有的电力网络(电池组、家庭网络、建筑系统等)。进入智能(呃)电网。这使得这些智能电网能够针对中央电网故障提供弹性，缓解通信故障，集成多种能源，并提供自主运行。该控制器以可扩展和分布式的方式维护电网稳定性，而不需要中央控制。提议的技术将适用于所有能源网络(电池组、微电网、车辆对电网等)。它们集成了设备或具有标称存储量的设备网络(例如电池)。这使家庭和企业能够在不依赖中央控制的情况下稳定地为关键负载供电，使其在电网中断时具有弹性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of an energy assurance solution based on a microgrid technology that may be used for electricity outage mitigation from planned and unplanned outages (disasters). The technology is particularly aimed at increasing energy resilience of medical equipment, communication services, and critical businesses through proactive adoption of plug-and-play energy hubs by individuals and businesses to maintain electricity during major infrastructure failures without entirely relying upon public service investments that become scarce and over-extended. In the United States, there are at least 3 million individuals that depend on electricity for in-home medical care equipment like ventilators, CPAP, nebulizers, electric wheelchairs etc. The demographics of these populations generally cut across various ethnic groups, income levels, education levels, rural/urban divides, etc. The potential of a global impact of this solution is significant. Combining the recent trend of care delivery at home with an aging population may drive the need for energy resilience at a personal or at home level making the proposed solution relevant and necessary.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a small-scale energy hub that operates as a microgrid for critical infrastructure at a home or building level. At the core of the hub is a microgrid controller that is based on self-organizing technology and is managed by an internet-of-things grid management platform. The self-organizing controller and the platform are able to convert an existing electrical network (battery packs, home networks, building systems, etc.) into a smart(er) grid. This allows these smart grids to provide resilience against central grid failure, mitigate communication failures, integrate multiple energy sources, and provide for autonomous operation. The controller maintains grid stability in a scalable and distributed fashion without the need for central control. The proposed technology will work with all energy networks (battery packs, microgrids, vehicle-to-grid, etc.) that integrate devices or a network of devices that have nominal amounts of storage (such as batteries). This allows homes and businesses to power critical loads in a stable fashion without relying on central controls making it resilient against grid outages.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.