SRP is now home to an innovative power systems lab that allows us to transition today’s grid into the grid of the future.
Chances are that if you look around, you don’t have to go far to see signs of the grid of the future nearby. These days, home fixtures and electronics can be controlled by voice or from an app, automation is more integrated into our lives, and renewable energy solutions are becoming more abundant.
Aunque estamos preparados en SRP para este reto, debemos asegurarnos de que nuestra red también lo esté. Al fin de cuentas la fiabilidad y la seguridad son nuestras principales prioridades. Más allá de eso, también nos hemos comprometido a apoyar todas las formas en que el consumo de energía, los hábitos y la tecnología están cambiando.
SRP’s Innovation Test Center, a dedicated space for our teams to test smart home technology, launched in 2020. Then in 2022, we opened a fully operational 5,400-square-foot grid technology lab dedicated to evolving the grid as we know it today.
Powering the grid of tomorrow at SRP’s Technology Innovation Lab
You might be wondering why we would need such a place. Primarily, this allows various teams that otherwise might not be located near each other to come together. Additionally, the lab will enable us to:
- Probar nuevas soluciones de software y hardware antes de su implementación
- Solucionar problemas
- Cumplir con los requisitos de cumplimiento
- Probar la capacidad de SRP para responder a diversos escenarios y fallas en el sistema eléctrico
- Ampliar otras capacidades de la red
“Trabajar juntos investigando y probando nuevas soluciones significa que podremos llegar a conclusiones más rápidamente, encontrar mejores formas de comunicarnos y, en última instancia, mejorar la fiabilidad del sistema de SRP”.
Kyle Cormier, director de sistemas de telecomunicaciones de SRP
“It is such a tremendous development because three of SRP’s disparate labs melded together to become one cooperative space with so much more functionality,” said Kyle Cormier, Director, Telecommunication Systems. “Working together researching and testing new solutions means we will come to realizations quicker, find improved ways to communicate and ultimately enhance SRP’s system reliability.”
The lab can accommodate up to 72 employees and has workspaces for engineers to test solutions, collaborative team spaces for research and development, and areas for configuring and staging equipment prior to field deployment. It also has a small classroom space where vendors and SRP teams can conduct trainings.
Research, develop, train
“Training is a huge area of focus for this lab space,” said Tait Willis, Director, Protection, Automation & Control. “With evolving technologies and standards and to adequately develop SRP’s engineers and technicians, we needed a central space where employees can come to learn critical practices in a safe environment.”
“We constantly strive to find solutions that help us better communicate with our mission-critical assets, which keep the power turned on for customers,” said Cormier. Cormier and Willis are excited for the work ahead and the substantial impacts they see it having across SRP.
“Esperamos ver cómo nuestra organización se beneficia con la investigación y con las prácticas de capacitación mejoradas que los empleados podrán utilizar como base”, afirmó Willis.
Planificar hoy para la red del mañana
El Laboratorio de Innovación Tecnológica de SRP es sólo una de las formas en que continuamos garantizando energía confiable para nuestros clientes.