I-Corps: Resilient Energy Solutions for Home Health Care

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种基于微电网技术的能源保障解决方案，可用于减轻计划内和计划外停电（灾害）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中心来提高医疗设备，通信服务和关键业务的能源弹性，以在重大基础设施故障期间维持电力，而不完全依赖变得稀缺和过度扩展的公共服务投资。在美国，至少有300万人依靠电力来使用家用医疗保健设备，如呼吸机、CPAP、雾化器、电动轮椅等。这些人群的人口统计数据通常跨越不同的种族群体、收入水平、教育水平、农村/城市鸿沟等。结合最近的趋势，在家里提供护理与人口老龄化可能会推动能源弹性在个人或家庭层面的需要，使拟议的解决方案相关和必要的。这个I-Corps项目是基于一个小规模的能源枢纽的发展，作为一个微电网的关键基础设施在家庭或建筑物的水平。中心的核心是一个基于自组织技术的微电网控制器，由物联网电网管理平台管理。自组织控制器和平台能够将现有的电气网络（电池组、家庭网络、建筑物系统等）转换为电力网络。一个智能电网。这使得这些智能电网能够提供对中央电网故障的弹性，减轻通信故障，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保持电网稳定性，而无需中央控制。拟议的技术将适用于所有能源网络（电池组，微电网，车辆到电网等）。其集成了具有标称存储量（例如电池）的设备或设备网络。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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 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.