Advanced control of inverters for carbon-free electric grid

A New inverter for the clean energy era

As the global transition to clean energy accelerates, the hardware connecting renewables to our homes is becoming just as critical as the energy sources themselves. In a landmark collaboration between Tapestry (Alphabet's moonshot for the electric grid), CSIRO, and Idaho National Lab, researchers have successfully developed and lab-tested a prototype 250-350 kW "grid-forming" inverter. By repurposing high-volume Silicon Carbide (SiC) motor drives from the electric vehicle industry, the team has created a device that is roughly 10 times faster than traditional silicon solutions and significantly more cost-effective.

This white paper details the technical journey from laboratory success toward upcoming field trials, highlighting key breakthroughs in:

• Multi-Mode Control: Demonstrating the ability to transition seamlessly between grid-following (GFL), grid-forming (GFM), and standalone "uGrid" modes to maintain stability during grid disturbances.
• Ruggedized Design: Re-engineering industrial electronics to act as active surge suppressors and providing the "digital power" equivalent of the robust performance once found only in heavy electromechanical turbines.
• Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE): Addressing the growing threat of cyber-attacks by "engineering out" vulnerabilities like plaintext credentials and hard-coded passwords from the start.
• Advanced Sensing: Leveraging high-frequency voltage sampling to transform inverters into "smart nodes" capable of triangulating grid outages and even detecting potential fire hazards.