Last week, a kick-off meeting was held to prepare for the expected November release of the $250 million Grid Modernization Lab Consortium Call. Mark Petri (NSP), Guenter Conzelmann (ES) and Mihai Anitescu (MCS) gave an overview of what is known about the current call and lessons learned from the first call held in 2016. Slides and full audio from the meeting are available in Box.
In the last call, Argonne received $26 million. Argonne was a lead lab in eight projects and a partner lab in 23 projects. Conzelmann said Argonne’s reputation among U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offices that work with GMLC has grown and the lab is better positioned this time for some of the announced mission topics. Because of this combination, he expects the lab to do as well as 2016, if not better.
The expectation is that the FY 2019 call will be divided into two parts, with the first solicitation being issued by the end of November. Concept papers will be due approximately one month later. The second call will be issued in January or February.
The lab has a strategy for approaching the solicitation.
The first call for proposals will involve projects based on the six topic themes announced late last month:
- Generation (including fuel interdependencies)
- North American Resilience Modeling
- Physical security and cybersecurity
- Advanced sensors
- Energy storage
- Institutional support and analysis (including metrics and valuation)
Each project will be led by one lab but will have several labs participating. For these projects, the lead lab is required to listen to any lab who says they have capabilities or expertise to help the project. This week and next, Argonne will hold internal working group meetings to gather ideas for each topic area so that a coordinated effort can be made to include Argonne in the multi-lab teams. Mark Petri, Argonne’s representative to the GMLC, will keep participants informed through an email list that is being compiled. Register here to be added to the email list and to attend attend the working group meetings. For this type of proposal, working group facilitators will be looking for those interested in joining a proposal team to provide one to two paragraphs on their relevant capability and an associated list of journal publications as backup material.
The second solicitation that will be issued in early 2019 will focus on topics selected by DOE program office managers, but likely will be tied to the topic themes from the first solicitation. Last time, these projects also were organized into the GMLC core areas: generation; devices and system testing; sensing and measurement; system operations, power flow and control; design and planning tools; security; resilience; and institutional support. Winning proposals typically have two or three labs as partners. Industry partners, particularly industry that is willing to cost share, is viewed favorably.
Because program office managers will shape the second call, it is advised to seek the advice of the Argonne-designated point of contact (POC) for the relevant office before developing a proposal. The POC can help you optimize your proposal wording so that it resonates best with that program manager. Please contact Petri at ext. 2-1346, Conzelmann at ext. 2-7173 or Anitescu at ext. 2-4172 to find out who is the designated POC for an office. The following offices are involved in the call: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Electricity; Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response; Fossil Energy; and Nuclear Energy.
At the internal working group meetings, participants will brainstorm on capabilities and expertise that can contribute to successful proposals, as well as potential lab and industry partners. You do not need to come to the meeting with a full proposal idea. Bringing a technique or expertise that can be added to another proposal is just as valuable.
Working group meetings on topic themes:
- Advanced sensors
Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018
Building 241, Room D172, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Facilitators: Nicola Ferrier and Santanu Chaudhuri
Watch on BlueJeans. Meeting ID 628346081 - Energy storage
Friday, Nov. 9, 2018
Building 241, Room D172, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Facilitators: Venkat Srinivasan and Vladimir Koritarov
Watch on BlueJeans. Meeting ID 996235396 - Cyber and physical security
Monday, Nov. 12, 2018
Building 203, Room D120, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Facilitators: Nate Evans and Rick Vilim
Watch on BlueJeans. Meeting ID 561014469 - Generation (including fuel interdependencies) topic and North American Resiliency Model topics.
Meeting time: TBD.
Facilitator: Patrick Wilkey and Rick Vilim - Institutional support and analysis (including metrics and evaluation). There will not be a meeting. Please contact Vladimir Koritarov if you are interested in this topic.