Real-Time Decision Making Energy Seminar

Power Industry Problems and Opportunities for Computer Scientists and Engineers

The power industry is going through radical changes driven by several external forces including 1) demand for green energy and higher reliability, 2) stronger storms caused by climate change, 3) increasing cyber-physical attacks on the grid, 4) increased penetration of distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and microgrids, and 5) introduction of new technologies including storage technologies, smart meters, smart invertors, and sensors. The talk will present some of the challenges facing the industry addressing the need for a more resilient grid, and integration of increasing levels of renewable and distributed resources, and the opportunities for R&D.  It also describes the on-going collaboration between UC Berkeley and GridBright to address some of these problems, including the formation of a new non-profit organization, BetterGrids Foundation, dedicated to smart grid research and education.