API was awarded a Homeland Security grant for response and recovery. The project titled “A Portable Community Infrastructure Resiliency System” is a $971,103 project. It has a year long time period and is lead by head researcher Dr. Phillip Womble.

The idea of the project is to develop a portable system that would replace electrical power substations after a catastrophe and would also provide communications to the temporary substation as well as an area of one square mile around it.

This Portable Community Infrastructure Resiliency System (PCIRS) will be developed for rapid response to a crisis in our nation’s electrical-energy infrastructure. More specifically, the PCIRS will be capable for replacing a damaged substation or distribution transformer with relative ease.

The proposed lightweight power converter will utilize state-of-the-art semiconductors and modern power-electronic circuitry to reduce unit weight by as much as a factor of five compared to conventional iron-core transformers. The project will demonstrate how an emergency power converter as large as 20 MVA can be constructed that is light enough to airlift by helicopter when local highways are blocked in the chaos of a national disaster, or the transformer yard is in a remote location.

Transformer damage can result from a number of natural events including earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. There are additional concerns over terrorist attacks on transformer yards. Since so many industries depend upon reliable electric power, disruption of our electrical infrastructure by natural or man-made means will seriously affect our economy and our national security.

To help coordinate installation efforts and bring the electric power grid to a stable and safe operating condition as quickly as possible, a communication hub and remote-control station will be co-located with the transformer. The communication hub and remote control stations will utilize a Man-Portable Interoperative Tactical Operations Center (MITOC) developed under a previous agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

WKU will be combining both systems into a deployable unit and testing their functionality.

• May 12, 2008. Awards ceremony at The National Institute for Hometown Security.
From left to right: U.S. Rep. Harold Rogers, R-KY; Dr. Phillip Womble; Dr. Sadiq Shah, WKU Vice-President for Research and Development; Dr. Brian Lemoff, West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation; Dr. Keith Andrew, Head of WKU Department of Physics and Astronomy; Undersecretary Jay Cohen, Head of the Science and Technology Directorate of U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

For further information, contact Katie Moore at 270-781-3859 or katie.moore@wku.edu.