A University of Maine climate change research project was recently awarded a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The project, called STORM: Data-Driven Approaches for Secure Electric Grids in Communities Disproportionately Impacted by Climate Change, is designed to improve electrical grids, according to a press release from the university system.

“With climate change, everything we expect to be a one in 100-year event, are happening more often and with higher intensity,” said Reinaldo Tonkoski, STORM’s principle investigator. “How we design the grid to cope with those events is a big research question for us.”

In addition to Maine, researchers are working in Alaska, South Dakota and Puerto Rico to find ways to improve the resiliency of power grids.