Two UW-Madison engineers are working with industrial and government partners on the development of a microgrid power system at the fifth-largest incarceration facility in the country.
Thomas Jahns, the Grainger professor of power electronics, and Robert Lasseter, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, are involved in the $14 million project at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, California, to allow the jail to be powered almost immediately from its own backup energy sources in case of a utility grid disturbance in the utility grid.
Lasseter developed the microgrid concept, which could be used in other facilities to allow for seamless switching from the power grid to backup systems and back again.