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Superstation in New Mexico would unite fragmented US electrical gridJermey N. A. MatthewsCitation: Phys. Today 63(4), 22 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3431074View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3431074View Table of Contents: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/PHTOAD/v63/i4Published by the American Institute of Physics.Additional resources for Physics TodayHomepage: http://www.physicstoday.org/Information: http://www.physicstoday.org/about_usDaily Edition: http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition

grid. At the hub’s substations, thatprocess will be done by voltage sourceconverters. “The largest VSCs rightnow can handle around 600 MW, butVSCs allow us to grow in capacity becausewe can splice in as many of themas we want,” says Harris. And TresAmigas plans to store excess energy in150-MW-capacity batteries to be installedat each substation.Commercially viableThe project has attracted the interest ofenergy companies in the Southwest, includingPNM Resources Inc, New Mexico’slargest energy provider, which hassubmitted a letter expressing its desireto connect to Tres Amigas’s proposedhub. Director of engineering and operationsGreg Miller says that up to 20%of the company’s power capacity comesfrom wind energy. In addition to exportingexcess wind and solar energyby plugging into the hub, he says,“PNM could also see some potentialreliability benefits.”Tres Amigas has received the blessingof New Mexico politicians, includingGovernor Bill Richardson and USSenator Jeff Bingaman (D), chairman ofthe Senate Committee on Energy andNatural Resources. In a statement,Bingaman said the station “will catalyzethe adoption of renewable energywhile ...increasing the reliabilityof [the nation’s] electricity network.”Political support notwithstanding,“we’re not asking for stimulus funds, orguarantees, or grants,” says Harris,who maintains that Tres Amigas willbe a privately funded venture.Harris would not say how much itwould cost to build the hub, but EPRIestimates that its HTS DC cable will cost$5 million per kilometer once it becomescommercially mature, says Eckroad.Whatever the costs end up being, Harrissays that his experience and researchconvinces him that HTS cables are theonly way, technologically and economically,to pull off the Tres Amigas concept.And funding it privately, he says, will“allow American Superconductor toshow that their HTS technology is commerciallyviable and ready.”For now, though, plans are on hold asFERC considers whether to grant TresAmigas permission to negotiate and setprices with utility companies andwhether to exempt ERCOT from FERC’sauthority once the now-independentTexas interconnection plugs into thehub. At press time, FERC had not yetissued its decisions, and declinedPHYSICS TODAY’s request for an interview.But if FERC approves the firstrequest, denies the second, and ERCOTrefuses to join, Harris says that the hubwill still go ahead with “dos amigas”and immediately begin to link the Easternand Western grids.Jermey N. A. MatthewsNational Science Board warns ofslide in US competitivenessBoard instructs NSF to select “truly transformational” researchproposals and advises White House to ensure that US retainsinternational leadership in key fields.Following up on its January reportdocumenting a surge of high-tech investmentsand competencies in Chinaand other Asian nations, the NationalScience Board has issued a new report,Globalization of Science and EngineeringResearch. It recommends that a newcabinet-level council be formed to takestock of US innovation and competitiveness,and calls for the Office of Scienceand Technology Policy (OSTP) tolead a government-wide evaluation ofUS R&D programs against those ofother nations. “The US governmentmust be attentive to developments inS&E capacity around the world andtake proactive steps to maintain ournation’s competitive strength,” saidSteven Beering, NSB chairman.In a third recommendation, theboard instructs NSF to focus its fundingon research that is “truly transformational”and to achieve that goal by adjustingas necessary the criteria used torank grant proposals. As the only federalsponsor of nonmission research,says the Globalization report, NSF is obligatedto “maintain its emphasis on thefunding of basic, peer-reviewed researchacross the fields of science andengineering, with special attention totransformative S&E research in order toensure that the U.S. remains a world researchleader.” The NSB is NSF’s governingboard.Louis Lanzerotti, chair of the NSBCommittee on Science and EngineeringIndicators, said the board will soon establisha task force of its members to ensurethat its instructions to NSF areimplemented. The Globalization reportdefines transformative research as “revolutionaryadvancements, [made]through the application of radically differentapproaches or interpretationsthat result in the creation of new paradigmsor new scientific fields.”Globalization is a policy companionpiece to the NSB’s Science and EngineeringIndicators 2010, a compilation of statisticsand analysis that highlights rapidgains in foreign S&E investments,human capital, research infrastructure,and high-tech (see PHYSICS TODAY,March 2010, page 30).Maintaining US leadershipThe cabinet-level council called for inGlobalization would determine the criticalresearch fields in which the USshould retain its world leadership. Otherissues for the council’s consideration areensuring that the US economy benefitsfrom R&D performed abroad by USbasedmultinational firms, developingcooperative relationships between USand foreign sponsors of R&D to securecontinued US technical growth andstrength, and safeguarding US intellectualproperty. Lanzerotti, a physics professorat the New Jersey Institute ofTechnology, said the benchmarkingprocess called for in Globalization wouldhelp verify that federal funding for researchis “wisely invested to ensure USleadership in science and technology.”Arden Bement, outgoing NSF director,noted that the postwar period of USdominance in nearly every field of sciencehas ended. “It’s quite possible thatin many cases, we could be the coleader,and in some cases we could bethe fast-follower,” he mused at thereport’s 19 February unveiling, adding,“The importance of that realization isthat we have to stay connected with therest of the world.”In the Globalization report, the NSBurges the Obama administration toheed a provision in the 2008 AmericaCOMPETES Act instructing the WhiteHouse to establish a “council on innovationand competitiveness” to be chairedby the secretary of Commerce and comprisingmore than a dozen other cabinetrankingmembers. The law charges thatcouncil with developing an “innovationagenda” and recommending policies formaintaining US leadership in scienceand technology. Although the legislationcalled for the new council to be organizedapart from the framework of theNational Science and Technology Council,President George W. Bush formallydesignated a committee of the NSTC toserve as the new council.Lanzerotti said that the NSB would behappy if the Obama administrationchose to follow its predecessor with regardto the placement of responsibilities24 April 2010 Physics Today www.physicstoday.org