ORNL Researchers Use New Analysis Method to Study Power Grid Faults

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have used electromagnetic transient domain analysis to identify the causes and effects of faults on the electricity grid of the United States.

A ORNL team, in partnership with Southern California Edison, conducted a simulation where the EMT method was used to replicate the effects of an electrical fault that impacted a California solar power plant in 2018.

According to ORNL researcher Suman Debnath, EMT domain analysis would help critical infrastructure operators ensure service reliability as interconnections and expansions and demand for electricity across various sectors continue to grow.

ORNL is hosting a workshop in collaboration with the Department of Energy and the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to inform participants of the algorithms, tools, modeling, planning and interconnection studies using the method, Homeland Security Today reported.

The simulation is part of efforts by the DOE to enhance energy grid resilience.

As part of the Exascale Computing Project’s ExaSGD project, ORNL and three other national laboratories used exascale supercomputers to identify possible grid failures in a short span of time. Specifically, ORNL used its Frontier supercomputer to run the HiOp high-performance computing software from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The study identified over 100,000 failures and contingencies.