Anurag Srivastava and Shikha Sharma identify National Science Foundation funding as a possible key to protecting the power grid and lowering heating bills in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
Winter is no wonderland for many Appalachian homes and businesses now struggling with utility bills and facing the prospect of losing heat if ice storms or increased demand for power bring down the electric grid.
However, Srivastava, professor and chairperson of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and Sharma, chief scientific officer of the WVU Institute for Sustainability and Energy Research and Marshall S. Miller Energy Professor of Geology, say the solutions for problems like those already exist, ranging from AI-assisted grid management to geothermal heat pumps.
As per Srivastava, winter creates multiple, simultaneous stresses. Even short outages can have serious consequences, such as frozen pipes and health risks for households, production losses for businesses, and reduced reliability for hospitals, emergency services and communications systems.
“Electric costs may also rise. When utilities must rely on expensive peaking generators or emergency fuel supplies during cold snaps, those costs can eventually flow through to customers,” he said.
“Technology is improving our weather resilience, however. The energy sector is increasingly turning to advanced tools, including ‘physics-aware’ artificial intelligence that enables human grid operators or automated control devices to make faster, safer decisions.”
Sharma noted that many households that rely on conventional heating systems powered by electricity, propane or natural gas experience service disruptions, inefficient heating and spikes in power bills.
“Ground-source geothermal systems present those households with an alternative. Geothermal energy uses the Earth’s constant subsurface temperature to deliver reliable heat during extreme cold, reducing dependence on volatile fuels,” she said.
“Geothermal heat pumps operate at much higher efficiency than conventional home heating systems and can lower monthly heating bills, minimizing exposure to price spikes and the risk of service disruptions during peak winter demand.”
The WVU Geothermal Team has demonstrated that enhanced geothermal heat resources present in the Morgantown area and across much of West Virginia are viable for large-scale district heating and cooling as well as potential electrification.
Currently, the National Science Foundation is considering the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure Consortium, led by WVU with partners Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, as one of 15 national finalists for Regional Innovation Engines funds that would help translate innovative technologies like physics-aware AI into practical solutions for keeping our power on throughout winters to come.
“If RETI receives the NSF award, those funds will help us improve our grid flexibility, forecasting, impact analysis and asset utilization. The result will be reduced risk of winter outages and control over long-term electricity costs, strengthening energy security for West Virginians and Pennsylvanians," Srivastava said.