Carnegie Mellon University
July 10, 2012

News Brief: Grid Outages Prompt CMU Professors to Rethink Sustainable Solutions

A cache of summer grid outages from storms and intense heat prompted some savvy Carnegie Mellon researchers to explore ways of rethinking the solution to sustaining electric power even when the high voltage grid is crippled. CMU’s M. Granger Morgan and Anu Narayanan studied the costs of building regional DG circuits to support critical social services. Strategically constructing regional DG circuits may help to reduce the effects of catastrophic electricity failure resulting from natural or human-triggered events. The researchers report the strategy would be best implemented on a statewide or regional level. For more details on the paper published by The Society for Risk Analysis, see:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/smart-grid-technology-may-help-sustain-vital-social-services-during-blackouts-2012-07-09

During the heat wave, Morgan also previewed the "hot" new area of research for readers of the Washington Post opinion pages http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-next-outage-doesnt-have-to-be-this-bad/2012/07/06/gJQA7PUcSW_story.html