Grant: Applied Research Tools and Instruments Grants

Efforts to increase energy efficiency and optimize energy usage are pushing the development of a variety of industrial and consumer technologies that offer the ability to control electrical loads. Many of these emerging technologies have not been widely tested or implemented to coordinate with the needs of local electrical or other energy systems. The proposed equipment expands on NSCC's ongoing energy-monitoring research and adds capacity to test energy-control features for both hardware and software functions. Safe and reliable operation of electrical control systems requires equipment and instrumentation meeting stringent criteria and compliance with engineering standards and electrical codes. These equipment upgrades represent a modest example of energy management tools, but they will provide a very important platform for practical applied research in energy control for a region with unique off-peak renewables such as tidal energy. The research programs supported by this equipment will be developing next-generation energy control systems for integration for industrial, commercial and residential scale deployment. The equipment will allow the testing and development of a variety of energy management software tools and applications and will help lead students into a workforce of electricians, technologists, and technicians ready for a career in this rapidly evolving area of energy innovation.