UCLA is partnering with the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) to develop new smart grid technologies. The ten year project is receiving funding from the United States Department of Energy and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

To that end, Gadh's team is using several campus buildings as the project’s lab an experimental lab to observe how wireless sensing and control systems can help create the smart grid. The researchers are retrofitting the buildings with sensors and smart meters they say can “gauge and adjust the amount of power needed in a room at a particular time of day and control appliances, lights, and heating and air-conditioning systems depending on energy pricing or power availability on the grid.”

The collaboration came about after the Korean government learned of Gadh's work with wireless smart-grid applications, specifically UCLA’s Wireless Internet Smart Grid (WINSmartGridTM)is a network platform that enables appliances such as plug-in electric vehicles, washers, dryers and air conditioners to be wirelessly monitored, connected, and controlled through a wireless communications framework. 

[Via] Smart Meters

[Image] UCLA