Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) developed groundbreaking software that optimizes power across the grid by improving accuracy and transmission capacity. They’ve teamed up with wind energy software company WindSim Power to create WindSim Power Line, which works with utilities to improve transmission lines to meet future infrastructure demands.

The INL-developed software, called General Line Ampacity State Solver (GLASS) V. 2, is the result of more than a decade of development and years of collaboration. As a graduate student in the late 2000s, Jake Gentle saw a problem: Americans pay billions of dollars each year for electricity that they can’t use. Power customers pay for power generated, but about 5% of that electricity is lost in transmission and distribution.

The electrical currents that zip through power lines are monitored and managed by utilities, which must walk a careful line to maintain enough power to keep everyone’s lights on, but not so much that transmission lines overheat. The task is more complicated because weather conditions impact the capacity of the power lines. Traditionally, grid operators base these decisions on Static Line Ratings, safety guidelines based on conservative data of fixed weather conditions.  

Gentle – now a Senior Program Manager at INL – worked with fellow INL researchers and scientists at WindSim to develop the GLASS software platform to enable grid operators to use real-time weather data and adjust moment to moment. By making grids smarter, the technology allows utilities to safely deliver up to 40% more electricity to homes and businesses.

Gentle’s collaboration with WindSim was formalized in 2016 via the Department of Energy’s Energy I-Corps program, an immersive two-month training where researchers work with industry mentors to develop viable market pathways for their technologies. Through this process, they shifted the focus from creating a tool for research and development to one that would make transmission lines more efficient and benefit utilities across the U.S. and globe.

“What we really got out of Energy I-Corps was an understanding of market size, what the market might accept and what the solution package could look like,” Gentle said. 

The following year, WindSim Power was established, with support from the DOE’s Technology Commercialization Fund. The company has worked with utilities including New York Power Authority, Idaho Power Company and AltaLink in Canada, among others. The technology has also been integrated into the North American Energy Resilience Model, a tool the federal government uses to evaluate the energy infrastructure after catastrophic events. 

(Video Credit: DOE Office of Technology Transitions)