\nThat\u2019s where Curtiss Fox of the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) comes in. The work he and his team are doing today at the University\u2019s Energy Innovation Center on its grid simulator will forever change the way we power our nation, and even our world.
\nThe Duke Energy eGRID has been under construction at Clemson\u2019s Charleston-based testing facility since the first of this year, shortly after Fox was named director of operations. Assembly wrapped up on the eGRID this spring, and the summer months will be spent essentially turning the equipment on in preparation for the center\u2019s first customer: a private company affiliated with the energy industry. [pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#566127′]Although the proverbial switch has yet to be flipped, the eGRID project has been four years in the making, with Fox at the helm since the very beginning \u2014 first as a Ph.D. student and now as director of operations.[\/pullquote] It\u2019s no wonder the prospect of making the simulator come to life, likely sometime this fall, is so thrilling for Fox.
\n\u201cThis,\u201d he offers enthusiastically, \u201cis when you really start making the\u00a0equipment perform.\u201d
\n
![\"J.](\"http:\/\/clemsonworld.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Fox-Graduation_12-2013-300x285.jpg\")
J. Curtiss Fox receiving his doctoral (2013) degree in electrical engineering from Clemson.<\/p><\/div> J. Curtiss Fox (right) chats with U.S. Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman at the dedication of the SCE&G Energy Innovation Center.<\/p><\/div>
\nFOX RECEIVED HIS PH.D. IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING <\/b>in December 2013, but his work on the eGRID project dates back to May 2010. At that time, the Department of Energy had just awarded a grant to the drivetrain facility so that it could conduct mechanical testing of wind turbines by constructing two wind turbine dynamometers: one 7.5 megawatts, one 15 megawatts.
\nThe Department of Energy grant had a specific purpose: to allow Clemson to perform Highly Accelerated Life Tests on wind turbines \u2014 in layman\u2019s terms, the tests are designed to simulate extreme events, those outside the turbine\u2019s normal operating range, to see how they respond. These tests are important before the turbines are deployed to the field for obvious reasons, namely to prevent equipment failures and avoid expensive replacements on the highly technical equipment.
\nAbout the time the grant was awarded, Fox\u2019s longtime Clemson adviser, Randy Collins, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Science and professor of electrical and computer engineering, attended a presentation about the then-proposed wind turbine drivetrain testing facility. Collins spoke with Energy Innovation Center facility director and senior scientist, Nick Rigas, and learned about an electrical diagram of the proposed facility. On that diagram, there was a box. But no one quite knew what type of equipment was going to go into the box.
\nCollins mentioned to Rigas that he had a grad student who could look into that for him. A few weeks later, Fox drove to Charleston. He met Rigas. He landed the job: grad assistant at CURI. Fox\u2019s main objective was to figure out what kind of electrical equipment went into the box. He also was charged with designing power-flow studies and studying the transient response of the electrical equipment within the facility.
\nThe rest is history, or the future \u2014 as the case may be.
\nTHE BOX HAD A NAME, <\/b>if not a specific function: LVRT equipment. It turns out it was actually an addition to the wind turbine facility\u2019s electrical system. It wasn\u2019t until after the grant was awarded that the Department of Energy came back to Clemson and asked if the University could also look at working an electrical test into what was otherwise mechanical testing of the wind turbine drivetrains.
\nThe answer, thanks to Fox, was \u201cyes.\u201d That box was right in his wheelhouse. Low Voltage Ride-Through, or LVRT, is the ability of electrical equipment to keep working even when there are brief disturbances in the power system \u2014 something like lightning strikes, fallen trees or even animals on the power lines. When the lights flicker or short out, it\u2019s because the flow of electricity has been disrupted. Fox had been pursuing a thesis on the subject, and now he had an opportunity to give it real-world application.
\n[pullquote align=’right’ font=’oswald’ color=’#566127′]So, Fox developed a grid simulator to troubleshoot these kinds of power interruptions and reduce the risks that those in the energy industry worry about as they try to integrate new technologies into the electrical grid.[\/pullquote]
\nSince then, Fox\u2019s work to bring this capability to the Energy Innovation Center has introduced a world-class, advanced testing platform capable of modeling grid conditions anywhere in the world.
\nThe grid simulator is a center for innovation, where energy efficiency, energy storage and smart-grid technologies can be developed, tested and certified before they are rolled out for the mass marketplace. All the while, the project has been an opportunity to educate industry about power systems engineering and to show them how it could impact their future workforces.
\n\u201cTHE QUESTION THAT ARISES IS, <\/b>\u2018How do we go about integrating the renewable, distributed, new-generation storage energy equipment into the existing infrastructure, such that you can offset costs associated with upgrading the infrastructure?\u2019\u201d Fox explains of his work at CURI.
\nThink of it like this: Say you have a power line feeding a neighborhood, and then a developer decides to build again, and the neighborhood doubles in size. \u201cThey would either need to install another power line or rebuild it with bigger equipment,\u201d Fox explains.
\n\u201cBut what if they could come in and install energy storage and not have to rebuild that power line?\u201d Fox asks. \u201cThey could defer an upgrade, or avoid having to put in a whole new power line, by simply placing newer, more efficient equipment in existing locations.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s exactly the kind of technology Fox\u2019s grid simulator works to troubleshoot, something that is of great interest to utility companies, energy equipment manufacturers and national energy officials, among others. Specifically, the eGRID houses equipment that facilitates testing of the three key renewable\u00a0energy technologies: energy storage, wind turbine energy and large, utility-scale solar energy.
\nIt is this third and final component of the testing facility, a Photovoltaic (PV) Array Simulator, that is the most recent innovation moving Clemson to the forefront of the alternative energy field. Clemson\u2019s PV Array Simulator \u2014 which essentially combines several acres of solar panels designed to capture energy from the sun into a small box \u2014 is scheduled to come online this fall, and when it does, it will be the largest such simulator in the world. [pullquote align=’left’ font=’oswald’ color=’#566127′]It will also make Clemson\u2019s grid simulator the only one in the world capable of testing all three of the key renewable-energy technologies.[\/pullquote]
\nThe $98 million testing facility has been funded by a $45 million Department of Energy grant, and matched with $53 million of public and private funds. The eGRID represents another $12 million on top of that. It\u2019s truly pioneering technology, something officials at the highest levels of government have taken notice of, including U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman.
\n\u201cDeveloping America\u2019s vast renewable energy resources is an important part of the Energy Department\u2019s \u2018all-of-the-above\u2019 strategy to pave the way to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future,\u201d Poneman offers. \u201cThe Clemson testing facility represents a critical investment to ensure America leads in this fast-growing global industry \u2014 helping to make sure the best, most efficient wind energy technologies are developed and manufactured in the United States.\u201d
\n![\"J.](\"http:\/\/clemsonworld.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Fox-Energy__076-300x272.jpg\")
\nLAST YEAR FOX AND HIS COLLEAGUES FILED A U.S. PATENT <\/b>on the grid simulator while he also successfully defended his dissertation on Low Voltage Ride-Through technology. The grid simulator project is now a separate, Department of Energy-sponsored project supported in large measure by corporate partners including Duke Energy and SCANA.
\n\u201cThe energy industry is a growing and changing industry,\u201d offers Kevin Marsh, chairman and chief executive officer of SCANA Corporation, the parent company of SCE&G, a key partner in the project. \u201cIt is important for the private sector to work with public partners such as the U.S. Department of Energy and Clemson University to address the opportunities and challenges that face our industry.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s Fox\u2019s past collaboration that bodes so well for the future of the electrical grid.
\n\u201cAs a student, I was allowed to collaborate directly with industry,\u201d Fox says in retrospect. \u201cThese projects are only a steppingstone for the research and innovation that will be needed for the grid of the future. I hope to continue to contribute to those efforts.\u201d
\nSCETV: World’s Most Advanced Energy Testing Facility Opens in South Carolina<\/h6>\n