The $5m grant is expected to be used to initiate research through a newly established center called interdisciplinary Center for Research Excellence in Design of Intelligent Technologies for Smart Grids (iCREDITS), which will focus on intelligent technologies for smart grids.
The funding is primarily divided into several projects that are focused on energy delivery, monitoring and pattern discovery, as well as agent-based coordination and communication.
NMSU Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head Satish Ranade said the grant is important for the research and development of new concepts, the collaboration and interdisciplinary exposure for students involved with the project, and the resulting outreach and recruiting.
The College of Engineering is currently conducting research on how to better control, manage and protect electricity grids, while the College of Arts & Sciences is providing expertise in modeling communication, control and data mining.
The smart grids gather and provide information on the happenings in an electricity grid to predict patterns and help enhance sustainability.
Ranade said the smart grids are a combination of communications, computers and intelligent controls that lead to improvement of how electricity is moved around, eventually saving money and improving reliability.
"It allows you to use what you have smarter, it allows you to design things in a smarter way and the ultimate promise is that whether an electricity customer wants to do something with the information or not, it would be nice for customers to know that right now you’re using electricity at a premium time and the cost is high," Ranade added.