The Southeast region of the United States is the fastest growing energy consuming region in the US. With several of the nation’s largest utilities headquartered here and major global suppliers and manufacturers situated throughout the region, reliable and economical energy and a technically qualified workforce are necessary requirements to sustain this growth. With an evolving grid that will be subjected to more intermittency, operators must be prepared to deal with these challenges and increase situational awareness to maintain high levels of reliability.
With an aging infrastructure and new demands on the grid for cleaner electricity and need for resilience under extreme weather conditions, the region’s utilities have to meet these operational challenges to maintain high reliability and keep the lights on. The research under CAPER will provide a strong analytical foundation for developed methodologies augmented by focused demonstrations on customer sites to assure dependable product development as well as change management for the industry to undertake transitioning this technology to a qualified workforce.