US announces funding opportunity for AMI-enhanced grid reliability projects Virus background against the evening electricity pylon silhouette

AMI offers a ‘tsunami of data’ for grid reliability investment

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a notice of intent to issue a $4 million funding opportunity announcement. In particular, solutions tapping into the ‘tsunami of data’ offered by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to enhance grid reliability will be eligible.

The new funding will fall under the Sensor Data Analytics Demonstrations Funding group.

The FOA (funding opportunity announcement) aims to enhance grid reliability and resilience given the availability of advanced data collection and analysis to develop the grid of the future.

In a press release announcing the FOA, the DOE states how “the tsunami of data from the Advanced Metering Infrastructure, specifically, as well as sensors with fast-streaming data sets, have challenged the traditional methods of utility data acquisition, use and storage.”

The FOA seeks to establish a portfolio of projects that demonstrate the different geographic, economic and climate conditions that help assess the deployment of advanced sensor technologies.

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The DOE encourages demonstrations and direct partnerships with data providers and power sector utilities to help ensure that analytics support planning and operations decisions.

Awarded projects will include both Research and Development (R&D) and Demonstration tasks.

“The electric power industry is witnessing an explosive growth in the volume, variety, and velocity of utility data,” said Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for Electricity. “We will need the data and analysis to accelerate pathways towards our grid modernization goals.”

This is the latest from the US DOE to encourage the use of AMI within grid planning.

Earlier this year, according to a Wood Mackenzie-published Utility investment in grid modernization report, 25 investor-owned utilities in the US filed for $36.4 billion of investment into grid modernisation; AMI was a major focus for the call.

According to their research report, AMI and distributed hardening represented, at the time of the reports release, 80% of grid investment in the country.