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Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen
Biography
Stakeholders operating the U.S. power grid are navigating a new level of complexity as advanced technologies and renewable energy sources are being integrated into an aging infrastructure at an unprecedented pace. Today’s electric grid requires significant modernization to maintain reliability and adapt to the evolving energy landscape.
For more than 35 years, Eric Andersen has been designing, building, testing, and evaluating innovative solutions and deploying novel approaches and technologies to meet the nation’s most pressing energy challenges and needs. Today he’s working to overcome the obstacles of modernizing the power grid for reliable, resilient, secure, and affordable energy delivery.
Andersen oversees a dynamic portfolio of projects that advance research on the next-generation electric grid, and is the director of the Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center (EIOC), a facility used for collaboration in the development of resilient energy delivery systems.
The EIOC serves as a unique platform for research and development, providing a controlled environment for testing and validating new grid-related technologies under real-time operating conditions. Essential resources provided in the EIOC include:
- Two fully functional control room environments
- Industry-grade software products for power systems engineers to study grid operations and planning
- Curated real and synthetic data sets
- Federated testbeds for creating new products, and testing and evaluation of new technologies
- Dedicated, externally facing internet connection to technology evaluation, real-time simulations, system operation efficiencies, cognitive systems, and human-machine interfaces.
Focusing on improving situational awareness, grid resilience, and cybersecurity, the EIOC is a valuable tool available to utilities, vendors, federal and state agencies, tribal governments, universities, and U.S. territories for critical energy research and training.
By using the EIOC as a technology pipeline, Andersen and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory team create realistic grid event simulations and conduct studies on factors influencing system interactions, including human-in-the-loop systems and machine interfaces, to ensure that both technology and user interaction are optimized for peak performance. His expertise in cognitive systems engineering and user-centered design further elevates the practical impact of these projects.