2027 Event Agenda

Developed by the Georgia Tech Research Corporation alongside Southern Company and EPRI, this $2.6 million ARPA-E project represents the definitive blueprint for the next generation of grid security. Instead of relying on a complex, fragile chain of manual settings, this initiative introduces a completely centralized and autonomous protection system for the modern substation. 

Tour attendees will step inside the facility to experience: 

• The Command Center: Witness the vulnerability of legacy grid infrastructure and see how traditional protective relays leave critical assets exposed to sudden disruptions. 

• The Digital Shield: Explore how centralized, automated control maps the health of an entire substation in real time with minimal data delay. 

• The Self-Healing Lab: Watch the system instantly detect hidden failures and malicious cyberattacks, utilizing data redundancy to self-heal and maintain power flow. 

• The Clean Energy Horizon: Discover how this level of structural resilience paves the way for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by safely onboarding massive amounts of wind and solar power. 

By shifting manual grid protection into an intelligent, self-defending system, this project offers utility leaders a firsthand look at the future of operational resilience. Attendees can come away from it with a tangible roadmap to transition their legacy substations into automated, self-defending assets built for a high-demand grid.