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

电力创新促进无碳社会（EPICS）中心将全球科学领导者和从业者团结在一起，其使命是将电网过渡到100%清洁能源。使电网适应可再生能源具有挑战性。与集中式同步发电机不同，可再生能源通常在地理上分布，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、光伏板、可控电器、电动汽车和电池。EPICS的研究人员将调查需要在理论、计算方法、政策和市场设计方面进行哪些改进，以适应未来的电网。EPICS建立了一个从摇篮到坟墓的全球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合作。目标是加速研究向实践的转移。这种方法对于美国和英国（到2035年）以及澳大利亚（到2050年）实现100%清洁电力目标至关重要。该中心将基本科学原理转化为实用工具。它与全球利益相关者和行业（由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代表）合作，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（格鲁吉亚理工学院、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。作为附属机构，EPICS与美国国家可再生能源实验室、在五大洲都有业务的电力研究所和美国的学者合作，加拿大、丹麦和爱尔兰。该NSF奖项还支持在美国机构的本科生和研究生的培训。 EPICS的重点是克服核心科学挑战，保证物理能力，以经济和可靠地平衡消耗的电力与可变和分布式能源产生的电力，时间尺度从毫秒到几十年。这两个智力贡献是：（1）开发高保真和计算效率高的工具，用于模拟和优化过渡关键的太阳能，风能和存储资源的部署;以及（2）将其与技术经济原则的理解相结合，使利益相关者能够管理电网的发展，实现全球100%的清洁能源目标。EPICS的技术工作和外联活动将与合作伙伴合作，通过提高电网采用过渡关键解决方案的技术准备程度，为政策制定者提供信息，以及培训下一代气候和清洁能源领导人，造福社会。 该奖项由全球中心计划资助，该计划与澳大利亚，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，以应对气候变化和清洁能源的全球挑战。与联邦科学与创新研究组织（CSIRO），加拿大自然科学和工程研究理事会（NSERC），加拿大社会科学和人文科学研究理事会（SSHRC）和英国研究与创新（UKRI）的伙伴关系利用资源，以更大的规模应对挑战，而不是单独一个资助机构。该中心由NSF、CSIRO和UKRI共同支持。该奖项反映了NSF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.