Dive Summary:
- At the annual conference of the Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), representatives from NRG Energy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Marine Corps and the Department of Energy timidly revealed what they are doing to protect the electric grid from future superstorms.
- Judith Lagano, vice president at NRG Energy, revealed her company is working with grip operator PJM, car manufacturer BMW and the University of Delaware to research using 15 electric Mini Coopers as energy storage, allowing the vehicles to be used as mobile emergency sources of energy.
- Jalal Mapar, director of the Resilient Systems Division at DHS, said his team is experimenting with an emergency mobile transformer which could greatly reduce the time span of an outage such as the one which left much of Manhattan in the dark during Hurricane Sandy.
From the article:
"... This was a topic of a session at the annual conference of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Representatives from a big power company, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Marine Corps and the Department of Energy (DOE) were asked what innovations are on the way. Judging by their tentative and speculative answers, we are still years away from seeing significant, large-scale improvements to the power grid. But here are some glimpses into what that future might look like. ..."