PNNL

Key Takeaways

• A PNNL grid-monitoring technology is now positioned to reach a broader group of utilities through a commercially supported software platform.
• For utilities, the software ensures reliability and efficiency.
• For utility customers, better reliability means fewer power disruptions.

A grid-monitoring tool developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has moved from a research prototype to a licensed, commercially supported product that is now being readied for utility deployment.

The technology enables utilities to automatically evaluate how large generators respond to grid disturbances and identify potential performance problems before they become significant reliability concerns.

Originally developed by Jim Follum, a PNNL electrical engineer, and his team, the technology was recently licensed to the Virginia-based software company Simple Thread and will be marketed as Aion Pulse.

The analytic backbone of Aion Pulse is based on PNNL’s Generator Scorecard, developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity and the Integrated Energy Systems Office. Validations were coordinated through Bonneville Power Administration field demonstrations.

A new power plant reliability tool 

Utilities and balancing authorities (regional grid operators responsible for maintaining the continuous, real-time balance between electricity supply and demand) use automatic active and reactive power controls at power plants to restore frequency and support voltage after disturbances such as generator trips.

Historically, engineers analyzed those events manually, reviewing large volumes of measurement data one generator at a time. According to Follum, that process is time-consuming and difficult to scale as power systems become more complex.

“The Generator Scorecard was designed to automatically flag (power) plants for deeper analysis, standardize metrics across events, and accelerate model validation,” Follum said.

How it works

The technology uses data from phasor measurement units (PMUs), which provide time-synchronized measurements of grid conditions dozens of times per second. It automatically detects disturbances in PMU data and generates performance assessments for each power plant.

The platform analyzes three key performance areas:

• Frequency response
• Voltage response
• Voltage schedule tracking

Instead of manually reviewing disturbance events one at a time, engineers receive automated performance assessments that flag generators for further investigation. The technology eliminates manual event hunting and replaces visual checks with repeatable metrics, allowing engineers to focus on flagged generators and accelerate model validation workflows.

What's new

Since the technology was introduced, the PNNL development team has expanded software capabilities in two significant ways:

• The technology now evaluates very fast generator responses that occur during the first several seconds after a disturbance. Follum said the original tool focused on responses over roughly 50 seconds. New analytics now analyze very fast responses — within roughly 8 seconds — beyond the original ~50‑second window.
• Researchers developed a version compatible with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) measurements.

While PMU systems provide higher-resolution data, SCADA systems are deployed much more broadly across utility operations. This broader deployment allows organizations without extensive PMU coverage to use the technology.

Why utilities care

For utilities and balancing authorities, the software performs two primary functions:

• Reliability. The software helps verify that power plants respond appropriately to disturbances for stable system operations.
• Efficiency. Engineers can focus on generators exhibiting unusual behavior rather than manually analyzing every event, shifting from a reactive compliance posture to proactive fleet management.

According to Simple Thread’s CEO and founder, Justin Etheredge, grid modernization shouldn’t mean drowning engineers in data.

“Aion Pulse replaces manual event hunting with automated, objective, fleet-wide insights, allowing utilities to focus valuable engineering hours exactly where they are needed most to strengthen NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) compliance,” Etheredge said. “Through our collaboration with PNNL, we’ve created something rare — a tool engineered by people who deeply understand both the physics of the grid and the modern software required to support it.”

The commercialization challenge 

According to PNNL Commercialization Manager Allan Tuan, marketing software tools can pose challenges for a National Laboratory. While National Laboratories can develop and validate advanced analytics, they are not structured to provide long-term software maintenance, customer support, user training, product documentation, or commercial deployment services.

With PNNL’s grid analytics expertise and Simple Thread’s unique combination of power systems engineering and modern software development capabilities, a strong collaboration has formed to bring the Aion Pulse technology to American utilities. This partnership also included customer discovery discussions with utility stakeholders and ongoing collaboration to refine the technology for operational deployment.

The commercialization journey represents a complete technology-transfer cycle: a federally funded research tool that is validated with utilities, licensed to industry, and transitioned toward operational deployment.