Forty percent of the United States’ current carbon dioxide emissions are the result of electricity generation, which makes electricity and its consumption a top priority for the U.S. Department of Energy.

In an effort to reduce energy dependency and increase efficiency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for the Department of Energy has awarded three ISU faculty $1.7 million to help create a more efficient and reliable electrical grid.

 “The particular project that we’re working on has to do with scheduling power systems a day in advance and integrating more renewable energy,” said Sarah Ryan, professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering. “The tricky part is you have a forecast for wind power, for how much wind will be available that day, and based on the forecast you have to know which of the conventional thermal generators have to be turned on.”

Ryan, along with Leigh Tesfatsion, professor of economics, mathematics and electrical and computer engineering, and  Dionysios Aliprantis, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, will work to cut the costs of over- or underestimating the amount of alternative energy sources that will be available on any given day.

While Ryan is working to formulate the problem, Aliprantis and Tesfatsion have developed a market simulator so that the team can test their approach before it is implemented by wholesale market operators.

“The U.S. electric grid is outdated and inefficient,” stated the ARPA-E website as reason for the project. “There is a critical need to modernize the way electricity is delivered from suppliers to consumers. Modernizing the grid’s hardware and software could help reduce peak power demand, increase the use of renewable energy, save consumers money on their power bills and reduce total energy consumption — among many other notable benefits.”

The ISU team will work with University of California, Davis, Alstom Grid and Sandia National Laboratories to produce scheduling methods for several regional U.S. electric power markets.

A lot of research is basic, which means that it is not always commercially viable, Ryan said. This project is distinctive in that the research that is done will produce software that could actually be used in a large portion of the United States’ electrical grid.

“I think this is really satisfying because I feel like if this is successful it is something that will really be used in the whole market,” Ryan said. “I think it’s just an exciting opportunity to use mathematical research to work on something that will have a positive effect on the environment and on society.”