Powering advancements: UNC Charlotte's EPIC is growing the state's energy sector with workforce and new technology.

• Position: RESEARCH NORTH CAROLINA: UNC CHARLOTTE

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When the concept of the Energy Production and Infrastructure Center was born, the Charlotte region was on the brink of being a major energy hub. Fast forward nine years and the region is home to more than 260 companies and 28,000 workers that are tied directly to the energy sector, and the region is the country's new energy capital. EPIC has played a pivotal role in this designation by working closely with the energy industry in almost every aspect related to energy. With research in energy storage, renewables, analytics, power infrastructure, environmental impacts, precision metrology and grid modernization, EPIC is leading the way on important energy and power research. Located on the campus of UNC Charlotte, EPIC's 200,000-square-foot building houses more than 50 state-of-the-art laboratories and is home to the civil, environmental, electrical and computer engineering programs of The William States Lee College of Engineering and provides the laboratory and classroom space needed to develop new energy solutions.

One exciting example of the research taking place at EPIC is Staked Value Proposition for Energy Storage. The applications in which energy storage systems are used hold considerable value to energy producers, grid operators and in turn, energy consumers. It has been identified that there is a concurrent need to quantify the "value" of grid-level storage in the various services it provides to the grid, individually and in multiple or "stacked" services, where a single storage system has the potential to capture several revenue streams to achieve economic viability. This is important now as the cost of storage systems decline to attractive levels. The work performed by EPIC in collaboration with Duke Energy shows a new predictive, multiple-function battery energy storage management architecture providing an increased value stream optimization. An optimized Energy Storage System Stacked Application Controller has been designed and perfected over three years, with filed patents, and is now available for commercial use.

To focus and concentrate the applied research of more than 75 EPIC faculty members, students, and industrial partners, research programs within EPIC are organized into seven Research Clusters (Grid Modernization, Large Energy Component Design and Manufacturing, Energy and Environment, Renewables and Energy Efficiency Devices, Power Infrastructure Development, Energy Analytics and Markets, and...