Monica Jackson
The Energy Department has started administering a competition that gathers developers to accelerate the distribution of power across the American electricity grid.
In the first phase of the Grid Optimization Competition, participants are tasked to develop and assess their own algorithms on mock power system models in an effort to address security constrained optimal power flow problems, the department said Wednesday.
Winners of the first challenge will receive up to $4M worth of prizes.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the department calls on the U.S. innovation community through the GO competition to help modernize and address existing and future challenges in the nation’s grid.
He added that a secure electrical grid will support American families, small businesses and national security.
DOE will launch the next round of grid optimization challenges in 2019, which will possibly tackle distributed energy and intermittent resources, storage, grid resilience, restoration, and dynamics and cyber threats.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy developed the GO Competition in cooperation with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
