Improving Power Outage Prediction and Response, with Jeff Freedman

UAlbany News Podcast

Jeff Freedman, a research associate at UAlbany’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center (ASRC), is working in collaboration with researchers and meteorologists at the Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Ed) and MESO, Inc. to create the Wind Extremes Forecast System (WEFS).

By combining numerical weather prediction (NWP) modeling with machine learning techniques, the system produces real-time wind speed and gusts forecasts in an effort to minimize power outage impacts for millions of New Yorkers. The project is sponsored by the New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA)’s Smart Grid program and will use data from UAlbany’s NYS Mesonet, a statewide network of 126 weather stations.

Freedman shares on this episode of the UAlbany News Podcast how WEFS will help utility companies and emergency managers mobilize resources more efficiently, reduce restoration time and improve the long-term resiliency of the state’s power distribution system.

Read more on the project: www.albany.edu/news/91213.php

The UAlbany News Podcast is hosted and produced by Sarah O'Carroll, a Communications Specialist at the University at Albany, State University of New York, with production assistance by Patrick Dodson and Scott Freedman.

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