The humble electricity grid, often taken for granted, is being asked to bear the brunt of an unimaginable and sudden shift towards electrification and renewable energy. Helping to provide the innovation needed to ensure our power supply remains stable and efficient is a partnership between the University of Alberta and electric grid giant FortisAlberta.
U of A engineering professor Ryan Li, whose research focuses on enhancing the resilience and capacity of our electrical infrastructure, and his team are tackling the critical issue of "de-bottlenecking" distribution systems a challenge made urgent by the growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and other new electrical loads.
"If everybody's charging at the same time, there is a huge stress on the distribution system, which is not designed to deal with these types of new loads," explains Li. "With more renewable energy and the increasing electrification on the consumer end, the grid is not really designed to accommodate a very high percentage of this."
While the current power system predominantly uses AC (alternating current), many new technologies, from energy storage to consumer devices, are based on direct current, or DC. Li, who has been an innovator in DC technologies for two decades, says the advantage of DC becomes clear when considering the surge in electric vehicle adoption.
"What's going to happen when all these residential electric vehicles get plugged in and in a future where so much more power is needed?"
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Economically speaking, the problem is compounded when EVs roll into an individual's home that is not wired to charge the vehicle, which is most homes built before 2010. The current bill to dig up the old cable and put in new cable capable of carrying the needed electrical load starts at $50,000.
That is a quiet problem that has the full attention of utility providers and future EV drivers alike. To solve it, Li and his team are in the process of testing ingenious electricity converters that switch current between AC and DC, installed to provide higher-powered DC voltage to homeowners without replacing the AC cable. This means homeowners will only require converters rather than costly cable replacement.
This approach also provides "relief to the grid" by reducing the need for constant transformer replacements that have been ongoing for the last decade.
Monique Schluff Soboren, senior engineer with FortisAlberta, says the uniqueness of this project the first of its kind in the world is not lost on her company.
"We phoned around everywhere; no one's doing this. We even phoned California; we thought, California has got to be doing something like this.' They're not, but they want to know all about it when it's finished," says Soboren pridefully. "From the utility point of view, all the utilities care about this, but FortisAlberta put our hand up to say, We want to work with you on this.'"
For the study, FortisAlberta has created a "fake house" at its employee training centre outside Red Deer that mimics the loads of a normal home to test the converters.
(Photo: Supplied)
Li emphasizes the practical application of his research. "From the beginning, I've worked closely with industry partners," he says.
This collaborative approach ensures that their theoretical contributions quickly translate into tangible benefits for society. His group has not only published numerous influential papers and a book on hybrid AC/DC technologies, but has also directly contributed to the creation of startup companies driving innovation.
One of Li's former PhD students, Zhongyi Quan, has been instrumental in commercializing these ideas. Quan's startup company, Swift Charge which works to remove the barriers associated with building EV charging infrastructure and was supported by GreenSTEM funding from the Alberta government is focusing on the software side of these solutions.
"Over the years, we have produced more than 100 grad students, many of them working in utility companies or elsewhere in the net-zero economy," notes Li, who adds the need for a more resilient electric grid is a global imperative.
"Technology is evolving very fast. We have to keep up, and part of that is producing a skilled workforce. That's a big contribution for the U of A."
