GRID DATA Program Overview

This program seeks to fund the development of large-scale, realistic, validated, and open-access electric power system network models (transmission and distribution) that have the detail required for the successful development and testing of transformational power system optimization and control algorithms. In conjunction, the program will also fund the creation of an open-access, self-sustaining repository for the storage, annotation, and curation of these power systems models, as well as others generated by the community. These advancements would promise to substantially reduce the barriers to the testing and adoption of new strategies for grid optimization and control, including new Optimal Power Flow (OPF) algorithms. The public availability provided by open-access to these models and the repository is required for more accurate and comprehensive evaluation of emerging grid operation optimization algorithms, including optimization competitions, as have been successfully employed in many other optimization-dependent fields and industries.1,2,3 These new optimization algorithms promise to enable increased grid flexibility, reliability and safety, while also significantly increasing economic and energy security, energy efficiency and substantially reducing the costs of integrating variable renewable generation technologies into the electric power system in the United States.