The Bonneville Power Administration has partnered with Oregon BEST in a new academic prize program that engages teams of the region's most promising university students in collaborative, real-world, applied study projects that support the development of innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the Northwest's electric grid. The program, known as the Northwest Energy Experience or NW Energy XP, pairs select teams of university students and faculty advisers with BPA subject matter experts in addressing technical electric power industry challenges.

Teams of faculty and will explore topics of interest to the utility industry, especially those that might lead to the integration of new, clean technologies. A team of students from Oregon Tech and WSU, Vancouver will study distributed generation modeling. A second team comprised of students from OSU and PSU will work on the optimization of hybrid electrical systems with consideration to climate modeling. And a third team from OSU and PSU will study data from synchrophasors which are advanced devices that transmit precise current, frequency and voltage readings, giving operators a wide-area view of the power system.

For more information, read the press release.