Exelon Teams Win EPRI 2021 Technology Transfer Awards for Projects Focused on Strengthening Efficiency, Reliability and Sustainability of the Electric Grid

CHICAGO — The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has recognized 25 Exelon (Nasdaq: EXC) employees with 2021 Technology Transfer Awards for their work on projects that underscore Exelon’s commitment to powering a cleaner and brighter future for customers and communities.

The award winners were chosen for demonstrating exceptional application of EPRI research and technology in solving a problem of size and significance, championing a technology both within their companies and across the industry, driving progress in the electricity sector, and providing meaningful benefits for their companies’ stakeholders and for society. The awards spotlight the value of collaborative research to the electricity sector and its customers.

"Congratulations to these outstanding Exelon employees for their visionary work toward creating a more sustainable, efficient and reliable electric grid," said Calvin Butler, Exelon senior executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We have many technologies in place today that give us a clear path both to making significant reductions in carbon emissions and to hardening the grid. But, it is the research being conducted by EPRI and others into new technologies, as well as increased investment in STEM education, that will help close gaps to achieving future climate and resiliency goals."

EPRI’s Power Delivery and Utilization sector received more than 100 nominations, and only 21 projects were selected to represent the best of the best for 2021. Five of the winning project teams included Exelon employees from across our six utilities—Atlantic City Electric (ACE), BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power & Light (DPL), PECO and Pepco.

“The EPRI Technology Transfer awards presented to Exelon utilities demonstrate their leadership in the electric power industry,” said Andrew Phillips, vice president of T&D infrastructure at EPRI. “Our relationship is a true collaborative effort as we move towards a clean energy future.”

Winning projects were:

Overhead Design for Reliability & Resiliency

PECO used findings from the Overhead Distribution Structure Resiliency study, which examined more than 1,000 outage events for vegetation and construction information. Their research application identified 13 existing construction standards and the creation of eight new construction standards designed to harden distribution systems against vegetation-related damage.

Standard File Format for Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Settings

Lack of standardization is a pressing industry challenge, particularly as DER use and adoption continues to grow. BGE, ComEd, PECO, PHI (the parent company under Exelon of ACE, DPL and Pepco) and two other companies came together to develop a standard file format for DER settings derived from the IEEE 1547-2018 standard. Collaborating with EPRI researchers, the project developed specs and socialized standards within their diverse stakeholder networks to ensure the standard file format would eliminate ambiguity and confusion about DER settings between utilities, developers and other stakeholders. The development of these standard settings will greatly improve the industry by reducing errors and time-consuming manual tasks, as well as confusion and ambiguity in the interpretation of individual DER settings.

Key Electrification Opportunities Identified in Utility Service Territories 

ComEd collaborated with several other companies to use EPRI’s Electrification Portfolio Assessment to identify high-impact electrification technologies that may expedite utility strategic and programmatic efforts. Programs and strategies focused on three key areas: increasing customer productivity and profitability, reducing greenhouse emissions, and increasing energy sales and investment in clean generation sources. The benefits of these areas result in more secure, resilient communities, while progressing towards utility-specific state and national decarbonization goals.

E1 Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) & Hardening of Substations

BGE, ComEd and several other companies and organizations collaborated to advance research and understanding of substation vulnerabilities from E1 electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events. Asset vulnerabilities from EMP events pose significant risk to reliability and resilience of power systems. EMP threats are also unique in their large geographic footprint, which can affect the grid by directly illuminating components (radiated threat) or by generating surges through cables that damage devices (conducted threat). 

National Demonstration and Monitoring of Indoor Food Production (IFP) Facilities

PHI and several other companies and organizations collaborated on EPRI’s national Indoor Food Production program to advance industry findings on the impact of indoor agriculture on the electric power grid. The utilities’ participation engaged new and important partners, including those offering social and education services and addressing food insecurity. As indoor agriculture continues to grow, understanding energy demands will be critical to ensuring efficient, reliable energy systems. This research also helps advance understanding of the potential for indoor agriculture to reduce greenhouse gases and advance decarbonization goals, while still supporting the food demands of a community.

Learn more about the EPRI awards and projects at epri.com.