Grid Project Impact Quantification

Power Grid | Renewable Energy | Screening and Analysis Tool | Data Visualization

GridPIQ is a screening tool that estimates the impact of new grid projects to help users make the right investment decision.

The Problem

If decision makers would like to invest in smart grid technologies, how would they know which smart grid technology to deploy? How would they calculate its impacts? How would they know which one is the best? Our target users are: Utilities; Policy Makers; Commercial building managers; Researchers; City planners.

The Solution

Create an interactive tool powered by sophisticated algorithms to enable users to select technologies, estimate the results and tweak parameters accordingly. The tool enables users with any level of grid knowledge to estimate the impact by providing an intuitive user interface and collecting many publicly available data for the user to reference and choose from.

Approach

At a high level, it includes these main aspects:
1) Understand the user needs
2) Create user flow, user journey and design iterations
3) Get user feedback and cognitive walkthrough evaluations
4) Iterate the design

My Team and My Role

I work with a team of utilities, power grid engineers, software developers, data scientists, a software tester and a project manager. I am the lead UX designer on the project.

Final Product

Demo for one of the use scenarios:
Joe is a city planner from Richland, WA. He is not a power grid expert, but he would like to see how investments in Energy Storage and Photovoltaic technologies will impact the city. GridPIQ enables Joe to learn there is no significant savings for total energy and ramping; however, the investment would increase market revenue by $ 1.4M and increase Photovoltaic production to 14.9 MWh, which is a big win. Now he is able to take the results and discuss the next steps with bigger audiences.

Feature Showcase

The core idea of GridPIQ is to gather input and provide step-by-step guidance, similar to Turbotax. I'd like to showcase how I visualized the publicly available data for novice users and displayed the results, as well as how I handled validation to guide user resolve errors.

Number of Vehicles

We need the number of vehicles to understand the project scope. Users can refer on how many vehicles in a region or a city to properly scope their project.

Photovoltaic system

In order to understand the context of the user's project, one of the things we need is solar generation data in the project location. If the user doesn't have the data, she can select the nearby weather station instead.

Validation

This is a screening tool that heavily relies on user input. Providing a comprehensive validation design to guide the user through this process is the key to the success.
Error: Something is wrong, if it's not fixed, the results can't be estimated.
Missing data: It is considered a type of error. I decoupled it from error as a result of user feedback for the initial prototype.
Warning: It is a warning that the data might not be realistic. The results can still be calculated.
Due to the interconnectivity of the steps, there are three levels of validation: parameter – happens immediately; step –happens after clicking away from the current one; project – happens in this input review page.

Results

Users can have multiple technologies in one project, so I think showing how the result changes after each technology provides more useful information than just showing the final result. Please see the idea exploration and design iterations below.

Iterations of the results

Grid Project Impact Quantification

Previous Workaround & The New User Flow

Final Product

Feature Showcase

Number of Vehicles

Photovoltaic system

Validation

Results

Multiplatform Design

User Flow

Design Principles

Evaluations

View Other Projects