A partnership between Entergy and the Mississippi State University Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) recently produced some new software to help keep Entergy’s grids reliable.
Research engineer Greg Henley told the SDN the equipment consists of three pieces of software. The first component helps calculate the load capacity of specific assets on the electrical grid. The second piece is designed to help engineers test relays more quickly, leading to better service for Entergy customers.
“It can detect that there’s something wrong,” Henley said. “When a problem arises you want as few customers at all to be out of power.”
The third piece of software is for corrective action, allowing Entergy engineers to identify potential problems ahead of time.
“Because our research with Entergy has immediate application, we feel that consumers may realize improvements from the work, often without them even knowing it, much faster than most university research,” said CAVS Associate Director Mike Mazzola.
A computer scientist, Henley served as the primary software engineer. Mazzola served as principal investigator, and research engineer Angela Card served as the project’s electrical engineer.
Henley said the software was delivered to Entergy roughly three weeks ago.
“Leveraging local resources like the research team and facilities at Mississippi State University is an efficient, effective way Entergy innovates for the future,” said Entergy Vice President of Transmission Jim Schott. “At the same time, we’re providing hands-on experience to the next generation of engineers, contributing to workforce development for Mississippi. It’s a powerful partnership.” Henley said CAVS had done work with Entergy in the past, as well as similar collaboration with other firms, including Nissan and General Motors.
“We’ve had some good progress and good working relationships to Entergy that have hopefully been beneficial to both,” Henley said.