Category: research

Aug 25 2022 2Commentsby David Breecker

Update: Resilient El Rito project awarded engineering funds

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, pilot projects, R&D, research, Uncategorized, workforce

Update 2/17/23: The Resilient El Rito community resilience microgrid demonstration project with Northern New Mexico College has awarded the engineering stage contract to Kit Carson Electric Coop. Work will begin presently, and we hope to move on to construction soon.

Update 8/25/22: The the NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Dept. (EMNRD) has recommended the Resilient El Rito project for engineering stage funding through its Grid Modernization program.  We expect this work could commence at the start of the new year, with Northern NM College as the primary recipient. In addition, EMNRD advises that they expect there will be federal funds available for the construction stage when we complete engineering, for which Kit Carson Electric Coop can compete. (more…)


May 25 2022 by David Breecker

You’re invited! MSL produces 3rd Annual NM Energy Summit

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, R&D, research, Uncategorized, workforce

MSL is once again producing the annual NM Distributed Energy Summit (virtual). Please join us on Zoom for this important event:

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Apr 13 2022 by David Breecker

MSL Teams with NMSU, NREL for DOE Proposal

Posted in MSL news, partners, R&D, research, Uncategorized

MSL has teamed with New Mexico State University and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (an MSL Member) for a proposal to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program, for a Building EPSCoR-State/DOE-National Laboratory Partnerships grant. The team’s proposal, “Building a federated learning framework for trustworthy and resilient energy internet of things (eIoT) infrastructure,” focuses on Federated Machine Learning (FML). It was selected by DOE at the pre-proposal stage for full proposal submission, and it approaches several FML-related aspects of smart grid data architectures and applications.

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Feb 14 2022 by David Breecker

MSL Coordinates Industry Advisory Board

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, R&D, research, Uncategorized

MSL is coordinating the newly-created Industry Advisory Board (IAB) for the NM SMART Grid Center, of which MSL is a primary partner and which is supported by a five-year NSF EPSCoR grant.

The IAB will provide feedback to the New Mexico EPSCoR Project Director, the SMART Grid Center Executive Committee, and the four individual research teams that are encompassed by the Center (SMART Grid architecture, networking, decision-support, and integration and implementation in physical testbeds like Mesa del Sol and Hardware-In-Loop environments). The feedback will focus on the relevance and value of the research performed by the four research teams to practical applications, suggestions for maximizing that value, and potential directions for sustaining research well beyond the remaining two years of the project.

We are pleased to announce these eight outstanding individuals and organizations who will serve on the IAB, and thank them for their participation:

Name Title Organization
Matt Cannon Research Scientist Shell New Energy Research and Technology
Jon Hawkins Associate Director, Innovation and Communication PNM Resources
Gary Oppedahl Vice President, Emerging Technologies Emera Technologies
Bill Kipnis Senior Business Development Manager Siemens Industry
Astrid Atkinson Chief Executive Officer Camus Energy
Bryan Hannegan Chief Executive Officer Holy Cross Energy
Peter Lilienthal Global Microgrid Lead UL
Luis Reyes Chief Executive Officer Kit Carson Electric Cooperative

Sep 17 2021 by David Breecker

Camus Energy Joins MSL Consortium

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, pilot projects, R&D, research, Uncategorized

We are excited to announce that Camus Energy, a leader in advanced grid management software, has joined the MSL Member consortium. With a mission of “transforming the grid for a zero-carbon future,” Camus complements the MSL network’s strengths in research centers, utilities, and NGOs with its unparalleled software engineering skills and distributed systems expertise, developed over decades of senior network engineering management experience at ultra-high-performance technology companies such as Google. (more…)


Sep 09 2021 by David Breecker

Update: Resilient El Rito Project Applies for NM Grid Modernization Grant

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, pilot projects, R&D, research, workforce

Update: Resilient El Rito has completed its design phase, and based on the results of the Sandia National Laboratories modeling (see below) is now entering the engineering phase. The project partners have applied to the NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department for a Grid Modernization Pilot Project grant to cover engineering requirements, and all other prerequisites to achieve “shovel ready” status, in anticipation of availability of federal infrastructure funds in the near future. (more…)


Jul 01 2021 by David Breecker

You’re Invited! Distributed Energy Summit ’21

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, R&D, research, Uncategorized, workforce

MSL is proud to be producing this event for the NM SMART Grid Center, and we would like to invite all those interested to attend what promises to be a stimulating series of discussions on NM’s clean energy transition and its broader implications.

We hope you can join us! (more…)


May 11 2021 by David Breecker

Energy Sovereignty Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology Welcome PhD Student

Posted in energy access, energy poverty, MSL news, partners, R&D, research, Uncategorized

We are delighted to announce that Sherralyn Sneezer (Navajo/Dine) has been selected from a highly competitive field of applicants as our first PhD student in energy sovereignty research topics, via MSL’s  Energy Sovereignty Institute and its partnership with the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology. Sherralyn’s research will be supervised by Dr. Nathan Williams, an Assistant Professor at the Golisano Institute, in collaboration with MSL.
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May 03 2021 1Commentby David Breecker

MSL Leads Resilient El Rito Project

Posted in Innovation, MSL news, partners, pilot projects, R&D, research, workforce

MSL is leading the Resilient El Rito project, a proposed community resilience microgrid project in the  village of El Rito, NM, based on and around the El Rito campus of Northern New Mexico College (NNMC). The village is at the end of a single electric power distribution line that traverses mountainous terrain and wilderness, and is subject to reliability and resilience challenges common to rural isolated areas, including climate-induced wildfires and winds. The project is a collaboration between NNMC and Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC), the local electric utility, advised by Camus Energy (KCEC’s technology partner) and MSL. (more…)


Feb 19 2021 by David Breecker

Alaska Center for Energy & Power, Alaska Microgrid Group join MSL

Posted in energy access, MSL news, partners, R&D, research

MSL is pleased to announce that the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP) has joined its Member consortium. ACEP is an applied energy research program based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Center provides leadership in developing energy systems for islanded, non-integrated electric grids and their associated oil-based heating systems.

 

ACEP, which has a long and distinguished track record in energy innovation, is also joined in the MSL consortium by a new organization, the Alaska Microgrid Group (AMG). AMG is a non-profit established to support implementation of resilient, robust, and affordable local power systems around the world. (more…)