Building Resiliency in Rural Power Grids

A grant-funded research project will investigate how climate change is impacting rural electric grids, reports Kristi Eaton in the Daily Yonder.

The project, called “STORM: Data-Driven Approaches for Secure Electric Grids in Communities Disproportionately Impacted by Climate Change,” will identify challenges to rural resiliency to extreme weather.

The project will be based in “strategic locations in which different weather events occur. Alaska, for example, deals with extreme cold, while Puerto Rico deals with storms and flooding.” In Alaska, where many rural communities are not connected to the state grid, associate professor Daisy Huang says “they’re all on their own diesel fired power plants. And so we look at ways to integrate renewables [and] optimize their diesel for maximum efficiency.”