Real-Time Grid Reliability Management

CERTS Real-Time Grid Reliability Management research focuses on developing and prototyping software tools that will ultimately enable the electricity grid to function as a smart, automatic, switchable network. These tools seek to:

• Improve understanding of the impacts of competitive market forces on the management of system reliability
• Provide real-time data and support information that enables operators to quickly grasp and analyze system status and respond effectively
• Allow operators to measure, monitor, assess, and predict the performance of the system and the behavior of market participants
• Allow rapid incorporation of the latest sensing, data communication, visualization, and algorithmic technologies

CERTS' work in this area is based on the recognition that off-line, engineering-based modeling and analysis of system performance is no longer adequate because markets—rather than centralized engineering decision making—now determine how the transmission system is used. As a result, new tools are needed to identify in real time the critical resource deficiencies that could endanger system reliability, and to reliably and efficiently match customer demands with supplies of electricity.

This work is reviewed annually by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Reliability. Materials from these reviews can be obtained here.