Safe, efficient and sustainable delivery of primary and secondary forms of energy from point of production/harvest to intermediate locations for storage or conversion — and from there to the point of consumption — is critical for a prosperous society. From safe delivery of oil and gas to assessment of relative risk associated with different technologies (for example, transportation of crude oil using a pipeline versus trains), this is a vast area of research. Reliably delivering electricity via the smart grid in the 21st century is as challenging as it will be rewarding.

Areas of Research Focus

Researchers at the University of Illinois are leading worldwide research efforts in making the delivery of energy — from coal, to electricity to hydrogen — safe and efficient. Some specific project examples:

• Applied Resiliency for More Trustworthy Grid Operation.
• Distributed Asynchronous Algorithms and Software Systems for Wide-Area Monitoring of Power Systems.
• Residential Energy Efficiency Program.
• Illinois Center for a Smarter Grid.
• Collaborative Defense of Transmission and Distribution Protection and Control Devices against Cyber Attacks.
• Securing Last-Mile Communication Systems for Smart Grid.
• Research into safe delivery of hydrogen.
• Renewable energy procurement/delivery for campus.