Fluke Corp. will receive US$1.4 million in federal funding, made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to ensure the smart grid is reliable and stable, and ready to accept power from renewable resources including wind and solar.

Fluke, a division of Danaher Corp., was chosen to create a new calibration technology that is a catalyst for creating a standard with which electricity flowing into the smart grid will be evaluated. The standard will enable consistent measurement of electricity from all sources, including renewable resources such as wind and solar. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the area of Measurement Science and Engineering Research to support research in areas deemed of critical national importance.

“This grant is a testament to the innovations we've brought to the field of electrical measurement,” said Barbara Hulit, Fluke president. “We are excited at the prospect of helping develop a measurement standard that makes the entire U.S. smart grid more stable, while utilizing renewable energy efficiently and effectively.”

Fluke's new calibration technology will be used to calibrate Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), a gating technology that measures the health of the electrical power grid. PMUs play a vital role in the deployment of the smart grid, by measuring and evaluating power flowing into the grid from increasingly diverse sources. Grid distribution centers use this critical information to determine where and when to send power across transmission lines, leading to more efficient use of energy and lessening the risk of power interruptions and outages. PMUs identify the preconditions that lead to power interruptions. The U.S.-Canada investigation into the Northeast blackout of 2003, which disrupted power to an estimated 45 million people in eight U.S. states and 10 million people in Ontario, hypothesized that had a system of PMUs been in place, the grid collapse could have been avoided.

Add to this the need for the smart grid to carry energy from renewable sources, and there is an even higher potential for future conflicts to occur, putting the U.S. smart grid at risk for power interruptions.

NIST received more than 1300 proposals for the grants, and Fluke was one of only 27 companies awarded grants in the area of measurement science and engineering research. Fluke will develop the calibrator over the next 26 months, and as part of the grant, will invest $390,000 of its own money in the development effort.

For more information, visit www.fluke.com or www.danaher.com.