In September 2013, a team of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers, led by Vahan Gevorgian and Robb Wallen, faced a looming deadline. Not only did the brand-new 5-megawatt (MW) dynamometer need to be up and running, connected to a 2.75-MW wind turbine nacelle as a trial technology component, but the power generated by the nacelle also had to be sent through the never-before-tried Controllable Grid Interface (CGI) and back to the grid.
As if that was not enough pressure, a record flood hit the Boulder, Colorado, area near what is now known as NREL’s Flatirons Campus, where the team’s work was being conducted. “It was epic. The deadline was the last day of our fiscal year of 2013, and it coincided with a 100-year flood,” Gevorgian said. “We worked hard, spending many nights on campus because some of us couldn’t even go home because of the flooding. We survived on pizzas.”
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