Winner of an R&D 100 Award, the Universal GridEdge Analyzer (UGA) is a portable, high-speed device built to help utilities see what’s happening on the power grid in real time. Designed to move from site to site, UGA can “listen” to electrical waveforms on feeders serving neighborhoods and major loads, including solar, EV chargers, and large data centers, sampling at over 10,000 times per second.
As Yuru Wu, Oak Ridge National Laboratory research associate, explains, “the UG basically can listen to the electrical waveforms and get a very accurate sampling with high speed over 10,000 times per second and with that things we should be able to know what’s happening on the grid.” Developed through a University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory collaboration, the tool delivers high-resolution waveform data and time-synchronized measurements across locations to support faster diagnosis as new grid components connect.
The team, roughly 20 to 30 people including utility partners, has progressed the technology from lab development to field validation, with deployments already underway at utility sites. Next steps focus on expanding partnerships and deployments to improve grid resilience, especially in DER-dense and data-center-dense regions.
