Wayne State prof works to turn energy grid into two-way street

A Wayne State researcher is working on a way to turn energy consumption into a two-way street.

Caisheng Wang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and engineering technology, is using a $300,000 National Science Foundation grant to figure out a way to make traditional energy from power plants play nicely with alternative energy generated from homes and businesses.

"The idea is simple," Wang says. "If we have more (energy produced from say solar panels on homes) we just sell it back to the company. Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that."

The energy infrastructure is designed to take energy from power plants through the grid to your home, like a river going down stream or traffic driving down a one-way street. Reversing that flow can create a number of problems dealing with things like protection, safety and power quality. "It would be a fundamental, revolutionary change," Wang says.

Source: Caisheng Wang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and engineering technology at Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke