Global Centers Track 1: Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-free Society (EPICS)

无碳社会电力创新中心（EPICS）将全球科学领袖和实践者联合起来，以实现电网向100%清洁能源过渡的使命。使电网适应可再生能源是一项挑战。与集中式同步发电机不同，可再生能源通常分布在地理上，需要逆变器将电池直流电流转换为电网交流电流。这些资源包括风力涡轮机、光电板、可控电器、电动汽车和电池。EPICS的研究人员将研究在理论、计算方法、政策和市场设计方面需要哪些改进来适应未来的电网。EPICS建立了一个全球从摇篮到坟墓的创新和实施生态系统，将工程师、数学家和社会科学家与行业、政策和公共利益相关者结合在一起。其目标是加速从研究到实践的转化。这种方法对于实现美国和英国（2035年）以及澳大利亚（2050年）100%清洁电力的目标至关重要。中心将基本的科学原理转化为实用的工具。以全球电力系统转型联盟、未来电力市场论坛和能源系统集成集团为代表的全球利益相关者和行业参与其中，使这些工具适应当地的政治经济条件和需求。EPICS由约翰霍普金斯大学领导。该中心还利用来自美国（佐治亚理工学院、加州大学戴维斯分校、未来资源）、英国（伦敦帝国理工学院、纽卡斯尔大学、斯特拉斯克莱德大学、爱丁堡大学）和澳大利亚（CSIRO、墨尔本大学、莫纳什大学）的专业知识和资源。作为附属公司，EPICS与美国国家可再生能源实验室合作；在五大洲设有分支机构的电力研究所；以及美国、加拿大、丹麦和爱尔兰的学者。该奖项还支持在美国院校培训本科生和研究生。EPICS专注于克服核心科学挑战，即保证物理能力在从毫秒到几十年的时间尺度上经济可靠地平衡消耗的电力与可变和分布式能源产生的电力。这两项智力贡献是：(1)开发了高保真度和计算效率高的工具，用于模拟和优化过渡关键型太阳能、风能和储能资源的部署；结合(2)他们对技术经济原则的理解，使利益相关者能够管理电网向全球100%清洁能源目标的演变。EPICS的技术工作和外联工作将与合作伙伴合作，通过提高电网采用关键转型解决方案的技术准备程度，使社会受益；为决策者提供信息；通过培训下一代气候和清洁能源领导人。该奖项由全球中心项目资助，该项目与澳大利亚、加拿大和英国的资助机构建立了创新伙伴关系，共同支持以使用为灵感的研究，应对气候变化和清洁能源方面的全球挑战。与联邦科学与创新研究组织（CSIRO）、加拿大自然科学与工程研究委员会（NSERC）、加拿大社会科学与人文研究委员会（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）合作，利用资源应对比单独一个资助机构可能面临的更大规模的挑战。该中心由NSF、CSIRO和UKRI联合支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-free Society (EPICS) Center unites global scientific leaders and practitioners with the mission to transition power grids to 100% clean energy sources. Adapting the grid to renewable energy resources is challenging. Unlike centralized synchronous generators, renewable energy resources are often geographically distributed and require inverters to convert battery DC current to the grid AC current. These resources include wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, controllable electric appliances, electric vehicles, and batteries. EPICS researchers will investigate what improvements in theory, computational methods, policies, and market designs are required to adapt future power grids. EPICS builds a global cradle-to-grave innovation and implementation ecosystem that teams engineers, mathematicians, and social scientists with industry, policy, and public stakeholders. The goal is to accelerate research-to-practice transfer. This approach is essential for achieving 100% clean-electricity goals in the US and UK (by 2035) and Australia (by 2050). The Center transfers fundamental scientific principles into practical tools. It engages global stakeholders and industry — represented by the Global Power System Transformation Consortium, Future Power Markets Forum and Energy Systems Integration Group — to adapt these tools to local politico-economic conditions and needs. EPICS is led by Johns Hopkins University. The Center also leverages expertise and resources from the U.S. (Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California-Davis, Resources for the Future), the UK (Imperial College London, Newcastle University, University of Strathclyde, University of Edinburgh) and Australia (CSIRO, University of Melbourne, Monash University). As affiliates, EPICS engages the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory; the Electric Power Research Institute, which has a presence on five continents; and academics in the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Ireland. This NSF award also supports the training of undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. institutions. EPICS focuses on overcoming the core scientific challenge of guaranteeing the physical ability to economically and reliably balance power consumed with power produced by variable and distributed energy resources, on time scales from milliseconds to decades. The two intellectual contributions are: (1) development of high-fidelity and computationally efficient tools for simulating and optimizing deployment of transition-critical solar, wind power, and storage resources; together with (2) their integration with understanding of techno-economic principles to enable stakeholders to manage the grid’s evolution towards 100% clean-energy goals worldwide. EPICS’ technical work and outreach, in collaboration with its partners, will benefit society by raising technological readiness of power grids to adopt transition-critical solutions; by informing policy makers; and by training the next-generation of climate and clean-energy leaders. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative partnership with funding agencies in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, to jointly support use-inspired research addressing global challenges in climate change and clean energy. Partnerships with the Commonwealth Science and Innovation Research Organisation (CSIRO), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) leverage resources to tackle challenges at a larger scale than would be possible for one funding agency alone. This Center is jointly supported by NSF, CSIRO, and UKRI.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.