Electric Power Research Institute

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) conducts research on issues of interest to the electric power industry in the USA. EPRI is an independent, nonprofit organization funded by the electric utility industry. Although EPRI is primarily a US organization, they have international participation. Their area of interest covers most aspects of electric power generation, delivery and use.

EPRI is in the Advisory Council of the PHEV Research Center.

Following Senate hearings in the early 1970s on the lack of R&D supporting the power industry, all sectors of the U.S. electricity industry—public, private, and cooperative—voluntarily pooled their funds to begin one of the first and most successful industry-wide collaborative R&D programs in the world. EPRI was formally established in 1973 as the Electric Power Research Institute. It was created as an independent, nonprofit organization designed to manage a broad public-private collaborative research program on behalf of the electric utility industry, the industry’s customers, and society at large.Underlying EPRI’s creation was recognition of the profound and beneficial impact of electricity on modern life.

EPRI’s R&D program is spans virtually every aspect of generation, environmental protection, power delivery, retail use, and power markets. Today, EPRI provides solutions and services to more than 1000 energy-related organizations in 40 countries.

EPRI has more than 900 patents to its credit.

EPRI laid the groundwork in the 1970s for the use of power electronics in the utility system, sometimes known as FACTS (Flexible AC Transmission Systems).

EPRI established the largest electric and magnetic fields health program in the world and played a pivotal role in resolving scientific questions concerning potential links to cancer.

EPRI funded the development of the world’s most efficient washing machine (Maytag’s Neptune), which reduces water and sewage use by 40%, energy use by 65%, and drying time by 30% of that for conventional washers.

EPRI created the world’s largest center for nondestructive testing, used first for nuclear inspection and now increasingly for internal diagnostics of fossil power plants and industrial systems.

EPRI champions the use of clean coal and nuclear--both compatible with traditional centralized power generation--as first-choice solutions for clean energy generation in the 21st century. The organization sees renewables such as wind and solar as playing more of a supportive role [EPRI Electricity Technology Roadmap 2003 Summary and Synthesis] .

References

External links

* [http://www.epri.com EPRI web site]
* [http://www.epri.com/portfolio/ EPRI Portfolio]