WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary Chu announced today that the Department of Energy is launching Open Energy Information (www.openEI.org) -  a new open-source web platform that will make DOE resources and open energy data widely available to the public. The data and tools housed on the free, editable and evolving wiki-platform will be used by government officials, the private sector, project developers, the international community, and others to help deploy clean energy technologies across the country and around the world. The website was launched as part of a broader effort at DOE, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and across the Obama Administration to promote the openness, transparency, and accessibility of the federal government.

“This information platform will allow people across the globe to benefit from the Department of Energy’s clean energy data and technical resources,” said Secretary Chu. “The true potential of this tool will grow with the public’s participation – as they add new data and share their expertise – to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to broadly deploy the clean energy resources of the future.”

DOE worked closely with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other National Laboratories to develop and populate the Open Energy Information Platform. The site currently houses more than 60 clean energy resources and data sets, including maps of worldwide solar and wind potential, information on climate zones, and best practices. OpenEI.org also links to the Virtual Information Bridge to Energy (VIBE), which is designed as a data analysis hub that will provide a dynamic portal for better understanding energy data. NREL will continue to develop, monitor, and maintain both sites.

Members of the American public and the energy community globally will have the opportunity going forward to upload additional data to the site and download the information in easy-to-use formats. OpenEI.org will also play an important role providing technical resources, including U.S. lab tools, which can be used by developing countries as they move toward clean energy deployment. Over time, the plan is to expand this portal to include on-line training and technical expert networks.

As part of the Administration-wide Open Gov Initiative, Secretary Chu also announced today that the DOE is contributing various tools and data sets for the National Assets program being undertaken by a group of six departments and agencies across the federal government.  These agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services; the Agricultural Research Service in the Department of Agriculture; the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Department of Commerce; the Department of Energy; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, are working together to spur innovation by making it easier for high-tech companies to identify collaborative, entrepreneurial opportunities.  By making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML feeds on Data.gov, the National Assets program will increase access to information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for license, opportunities for federal funding and partnerships, and potential private-sector partners.  This information will help innovators find the information they need and receive real-time updates, which can fuel entrepreneurial momentum, create new jobs, and strengthen economic growth.

With the New Hioki 8847 Hi-Corder measure a variety of signals in one go and find problem solutions straight away. This versatile unit is used in Power Facilities, Generating and Transformer Stations for Short-Circuit/Interruption Testing, Facilities Diagnosis and Troubleshooting. The Hioki 8847 is the ideal recorder for field use with easy portability and sturdy construction. When a problem occurs requiring immediate attention on site, grab the sturdy handle and go. The tough construction can take a few knocks. You can start measurement without reading through the manual because the Help Wizard assists you to do exactly what you want. Now, print out your results on the spot – you can load printer paper with a simple one-touch operation and the high printing speed gives you a hard copy in a snap. Store the data on media three times faster to a 30 MB CF Card: Max. 40 seconds.  Data-Sheet

According to the Department of Energy, the annual cost of power outages is approximately $80 billion. Now add to conventional challenges those risks posed by terrorists intent on crippling our economy. Suddenly, the aim of electrical engineers to develop a technology to keep the country’s electrical grid online (and recover faster) really begins to resonate. Taking the juice for granted A single superconducting cable could one day replace a dozen traditional copper cables, freeing up much needed space beneath city streets.

The Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is currently funding a promising solution—a superconductor cable that would link electrical substations and allow the sharing of excess capacity during emergencies. This generally is not done now, and so a flexibility like this strengthens the resiliency of the overall grid, reducing the likelihood of major power failures. This is S&T’s Resilient Electric Grid project, and the superconducting cable is called an inherently fault current limiting (IFCL) superconductor cable.

Engineers are putting decades of existing electrical research (by industry electricity leaders from American Superconductor, Southwire, and Consolidated Edison) into practice. S&T managers and scientists recently participated in a successful test of the new superconducting technology at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, as they eye the aging rats’ nest of power cabling under the crowded streets of New York City.

The benefits are simple but profound: these cables can deliver more power, prevent power failures, and take up less physical space. A single superconductor cable can replace 12 copper cable bundles, freeing up more space underground for other utility needs such as water, natural gas, or phone service. The technology is capable of carrying 10 times as much power as copper wires of the same size, while also being able to adapt automatically to power surges and disruptions from lightning strikes, heat waves, and traffic accidents, even sabotage.

“The IFCL superconducting cable being tested could well revolutionize power distribution to the country’s critical infrastructure,” said Dr. Roger McGinnis, Director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency at S&T. “Eventually, these technologies will help incorporate localized clean, green electricity generation into the power grid.”

As for the science, the cables work by transmitting electricity with near zero resistance at higher temperatures than usual. But “high” is a relative term among superconductors. The cables conduct electricity at a chill -320°F instead of an icy -460°F for traditional superconductor cables. Holding and conducting energy better than traditional copper means these cables take up a fraction of the space. Manhattan’s electrical workers may be able to eventually clear out the subterranean congestion beneath Wall Street that amazingly, looks much the same today as it did a century ago. Since the cables themselves better prevent extremely high currents from cascading through the system, they will help eliminate the power surges that can permanently damage electrical equipment, similar to a breaker switch in a home, explained McGinnis. The cable switches off during a surge or failure, but automatically resets when conditions return to normal.

For some context, electrical substations take electricity delivered over transmission and distribution lines and lower the voltage so it can be used by homes and businesses. Even if power is lost to an individual substation, by creating multiple, redundant paths for the electric current, the cables allow quick power restoration to all the surrounding power loads. Ultimately, these cables may allow substations that had been intentionally isolated from one another in the past, for fear of cascading failures, to be interconnected in order to share power and assets.

Cutting-edge high temperature superconducting cables have been successfully tested in laboratories, and can be found in a handful of demonstration projects around the country, but they remain an emerging technology. S&T is interested in advancing the technology so that it can be used nationwide, and is pursuing an opportunity to connect two Con Edison
Manhattan substations with the cable. The Department of Homeland Security hopes to enable the Department of Energy and various utility companies around the country to replace more than 2,000 circuit miles of power cables in U.S. cities with resilient, safe, and green IFCL cables.  (Source U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security—Science and Technology)

Following are some grid test solutions from Chroma

Chroma 66201Power Meter 10mA minimum current range / 1mW

Chroma 66202 Power Meter Embedded high speed DSP, 16 bits Analog/ Digital converters, 10 mA minimum current range and 1 mW power