EPRI joins Global Power System Transformation Consortium to help break hurdles to renewable energy

The Global Power System Transformation Consortium (G-PST) gained a new member this week to support its efforts to remove barriers to renewable energy integration, in the form of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

The consortium seeks to identify technology solutions and coordinate efforts with stakeholders worldwide to grow clean energy resources and simultaneously reduce all global pollutant emissions by 50 percent or more over the next decade. The need for such a cooperative effort has become more pressing with time. In the United States, renewables are now expected to grow from a 19 percent share of electricity generation last year to 38 percent by 2050, raising variability concerns.

“Harnessing the insights of global energy leaders to better integrate renewables is a game-changer for power system operators, customers, and the environment,” Mark McGranaghan, EPRI Vice President of Innovation, who will lead the institute’s G-PST engagement, said. “EPRI’s longstanding, collaborative research with energy providers and grid operators around the world, will be instrumental to accelerating the transition to a cleaner energy system.”

EPRI, a nonprofit research and development organization dedicated to tackling generation, delivery, and use of electricity, will now serve as a part of the consortium’s core technical team. It will work closely with energy research organizations, a U.S. Department of Energy national lab, and more than 25 power system operators. CEOs lead the consortium from six major system operators: Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), National Grid ESO (United Kingdom), California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), EirGrid (Ireland), and Energinet (Denmark).