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

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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.