Tuesday, 09 February 2010 10:08

Fluke Corporation will receive a $1.4 million to create a new calibration technology, the first step towards creating a standard to enable consistent measurement of electricity flowing into the Smart Grid including power from renewable resources such as wind and solar.

The project is being financed through a grant from the United States Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),which supports research in areas deemed critical to national importance and was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Fluke president Barbara Hulit called the grant “a testament to the innovations we've brought to the field of electrical measurement. We are excited at the prospect of helping develop a measurement standard that makes the entire U.S. Smart Grid more stable, while utilizing renewable energy efficiently and effectively."

The new technology Fluke is developing will calibrate Phasor Measurement Units, or PMUs, which measure the health of the electrical power grid. PMUs play an integral role in Smart Grid deployment by measuring and evaluating power flowing into the grid from increasingly diverse sources. This information is vital for grid distribution centers to accurately determine where and when to send power across transmission lines, leading to more efficient use of energy and lessening the risk of power interruptions and outages.

The investigation into the 2003 U.S.–Canada blackout that cut power to an estimated 45 million Americans in eight states and 10 million Canadians in Ontario suggested that the grid collapse could have been averted had a system of PMUs been in place. A recent study at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported that power interruptions cost the U.S. economy about $79 billion annually – around a third of what America spends on electricity. With the smart grid needed to accommodate for energy from renewable sources the potential the risk for power outages is even greater.

Warren Wong, director of engineering for Fluke Calibration said modernizing the electric grid and improving power system reliability required precise electrical measurements – which PMUs provide. “They also allow the grid to utilize energy from renewable resources and increase transmission throughput. At present, the testing and verification method for PMUs is unclear. That's why the Smart Grid needs one measurement standard," he said. "With a PMU calibrator, we'll have a standard that can be used to uniformly evaluate the proper operation of these devices. That could really minimize the risk of power conditions that lead to blackouts."

Fluke Corporation, the global leader in handheld electronic test and measurement technology and electrical calibration, is a division of Danaher Corporation.

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