UCLA and KIER create network platform for the smart grid

The engineering department of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has entered into a 10-year partnership with the government-supported Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) in South Korea to develop new technologies with the aim of creating a more robust smart grid.

The UCLA WINSmartGrid is a network platform that allows electrically operated machines and appliances, such as plug-in electric vehicles (EVs), washers, dryers and air conditioners, to be wirelessly monitored, connected and controlled through a wireless communications framework.

The technology connects the machines and smart meters to the WINSmartGrid web service, which receives real-time feeds from utilities and external sources on the price of power at any time of day and other information. Control signals can subsequently be sent via the WINSmartGrid network, which in turn can dynamically control various appliances in real time.

‘We’re also working on being able to send a signal for electricity to flow back into the grid, be it energy that has been collected by solar panels or electricity that has been stored in the batteries of EVs,’ said project lead Rajit Gadh of UCLA.