MIT centers, laboratories, departments and programs provide a multi-faceted approach to solving the world's energy challenge.
Electric power
systems and policy
Electricity is a fundamental enabler of modern society. Electric power networks are among the world's most complex manmade systems. Power generation equipment, long-distance transmission lines and local distribution systems must all work together to deliver electricity on demand to a range of end users — and the social and economic costs are very high when they don't.
New technologies are needed to modernize our aging electricity infrastructure, meet the enhanced power-quality requirements of the 21st century, accommodate large amounts of renewable and distributed power generation and meet overall electricity demand growth — and to do so in ways that minimize environmental impacts. It is also critical that we develop new technologies and power systems to provide affordable, clean and reliable power to the more than 1 billion people in the world who have no access to electricity.
Ongoing research is developing new tools for the real-time monitoring and control of large, interconnected power pools; new ways to decrease the substantial energy "line losses" of our transmission systems; novel economic and regulatory incentives for repairing and upgrading equipment and improving overall system design and operation; and a suite of distributed technologies that will enable electrification of rural areas, particularly in the developing world, where there is no existing large-scale power grid. These innovations will enable a technological "step change" in how we generate power and deliver it to electricity consumers.
