Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) has built the first-ever fully-functional campus microgrid on its Chicago Main Campus. Massive and rich data produced by this unique live laboratory are invaluable assets for the research community to enable further innovation in critical energy systems. However, data science in the energy systems faces demanding challenges, such as inadequate data processing speed, heterogeneous and error-prone data source, and strong real-time performance requirement. To enable research to address those challenges, this project will build a research infrastructure IDES (Integrated Data analytics for Energy Systems) to integrate high-performance computing power, in terms of both hardware and software, with the existing campus microgrid facility to meet the requirements of big data processing and analytics in energy systems.
IDES will be the first big data research infrastructure that integrates with a functioning smart microgrid. IDES consists of network devices, an integrated computer/file server cluster for high-performance data processing and storage, as well as a software-defined networking-based microgrid communication cyber-infrastructure. The project will enable the IIT microgrid to serve as a living laboratory, not only to advance power grid technologies but also to advance the big data analytics and cyber-security technologies. The project will also establish a partnership among power system researchers, computer scientists, electric utilities, IT support organizations, and other industrial partners to build a high-performance infrastructure for big data analytics in energy systems. In addition, the project will train students with the much-needed skills in high-performance data processing, microgrid, networking and cyber-security. The team will disseminate the research outcomes of this project to the research community, students, educators, industry professionals and the public through collaboration with the DoE-funded Smart Grid Education and Workforce Training Center at IIT.
