Notre Dame researchers examining electric vehicles and the power grid | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Notre Dame researchers examining electric vehicles and the power grid Notre Dame researchers examining electric vehicles and the power grid Published: December 14, 2012 Author: William G. Gilroy As plug-in electric vehicles become an ever more central part of America’s daily life, University of Notre Dame researchers are anticipating what that development will mean for the nation’s power grid. Under funding from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-Physical Systems Program, a research group is attempting to develop mathematical algorithms to help guide the integration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) into the power grid. Specifically, the researchers are working to anticipate and solve optimization problems critical to various parties, such as PEV owners, commercial charging station owners, aggregators and distribution companies, at the distribution and retail level of the emerging PEV system. The research team, which includes Vijay Gupta, Yih-Fang Huang and Peter Bauer from Notre Dame’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Patrick Murphy from the Initiative for Global Development, views an electric transport system as an eventual win-win for consumers, electric and transportation companies, and the environment. However, the team sees software and hardware challenges that must be met before such a system can operate optimally. For example, the team will be examining issues related to charging at both commercial charging stations and at residences, and scenarios when PEVs function only as consumers of power as well as those in which PEVs could conceivably serve as a sort of battery, reinjecting energy from the vehicle to the home (V2H) or from the vehicle to the grid (V2G). “Electrification of the transportation market offers revenue growth for utility companies and automobile manufacturers, lower operational costs for consumers and benefits to the environment,” Gupta says. “By addressing problems that will arise as PEVs impose extra load on the grid, and by solving challenges that currently impede the use of PEVs as distributed storage resources, this research will directly impact society.” The Notre Dame team will work in close collaboration with industrial partners to help ground the research in real problems and to facilitate quick dissemination of results to the marketplace. Members also will be working with academic partners from the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania. The project also will have a strong educational component that will integrate the research into the classroom to allow better training of both undergraduates and graduate students for participation in an electrified transportation market. Contact: Vijay Gupta, 574-631-2294, Vijay.Gupta.21@nd.edu Posted In: Research Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 05, 2022 Astrophysicists find evidence for the presence of the first stars October 04, 2022 NIH awards $4 million grant to psychologists researching suicide prevention September 29, 2022 Notre Dame, Ukrainian Catholic University launch three new research grants September 27, 2022 Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin engineers join to advance novel treatment for cystic fibrosis September 22, 2022 Climate-prepared countries are losing ground, latest ND-GAIN index shows For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn