Workshop: Test Beds for Smart Grids and Smart Cities: Means of Learning What Is and What Might Become in the Changing Electric Energy Industry. March 30-April 1, Carnegie-Mellon

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

The Tenth Annual Carnegie Mellon University Conference on the Electricity Industry will be held on March 30-April 1, 2015 at Carnegie Mellon University. This will be followed by a hands-on smaller workshop on April 1-2, 2015. The last two days will be an international workshop, co-funded by the German DFG. The main goal of this 10th anniversary CMU Electricity Conference is to discuss the state-of-the-art in testbeds for future electric power systems in light of multi-disciplinary collaborations; and testbeds as a means for helping the industry and academia to simulate and assess many unconventional hardware and cyber solutions, as well as the effects of policy requirements. At the Workshop, Carnegie Mellon researchers will also share with the community their "Smart Grid in a Room Simulator" (SGRS) which is under development in cooperation with NIST. Finally, the Workshop aims to nurture international knowledge exchange in the area of testbeds for smart grids. The electric power industry is at a crossroads, and it is essential to have well-designed testbeds for emulating likely dynamics that will occur in the evolving power grid and help the industry asses alternative proposed cyber solutions to ensure adequate performance in light of the needs of industry and society. In the Workshop, on-going testbed developments will be presented to the broader community followed by discussion of challenges and opportunities for next steps. A panel of industry practitioners will discuss the area from their perspective to stimulate research in academia that is relevant to industry needs. The Workshop will help in building a multi-disciplinary community of modelers, software and platform developers for the changing electric energy industry. Developments from the Workshop and follow-on research and collaborations are expected to contribute to basic education in th eelectric power area and to a vision for its future development. Developers of today's testbeds will present their state-of-the-art testbeds, and will discuss their experience in testbed development and lessons learned. Some on-going testbed developments are not readily accessible to the broader community, and this Workshop will help to encourage broader access and use of these facilities.