Summer 2020 REU Lecture Series Continues

Join us for a summer lecture series on all things CURENT. Zoom link is here and password is 298268. All interested students are welcome to attend. We have four lectures lined up for the week of June 15 - June 19, 2020. On June 15, Monday, RPI Doctoral Student, Stavros Konstntinopoulos will discuss Power System Dynamics and Transient Stability. Tuesday, June 16, Testbed Thrust Leader and Professor Dr. Leon Tolbert will talk about Reconfigurable Power Electronics Based Electric Grid Emulator. On Wednesday, a team from EPRI will present Shaping the Future of Electricity and on June 19, Friday, Dr. Denis Osipov will discuss PMU Missing Data Recovery using Tensor Decomposition. 

For more information about the series and upcoming lectures, please visit the Summer 2020 REU page.

June 15, 2020 - Monday from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Power System Dynamics and Transient Stability
Stavros Konstntinopoulos, RPI Doctoral Student

Abstract: This talk will be an introduction to what is Power System Dynamics, stability, instability, how it can happen and what means does the system have to avoid it. The focus will be then shifted to the transient stability problem and the role renewables will play in the future. An overview of transient stability controls will be given, and the talk will conclude with how the renewable generation can help us with situations that conventional generators were to slow to react to.

Bio: Stavros Konstantinopoulos graduated from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, with his BSc in Electrical and Computer Engineering, in 2015. He got his MSc from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2018 and is working towards his PhD. His research interests involve renewable integration and its impact on transient stability. Especially, he works on the utilization of low or no inertia renewables for enhancement of transient stability margins. Secondly, he has worked on synchrophasor data recovery, detection and source location of Forced Oscillations (FOs) and power equipment controller monitoring, utilizing PMU data.

June 16, 2020 - Tuesday from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Reconfigurable Power Electronics Based Electric Grid Emulator
Dr. Leon Tolbert, Professor, UTK and CURENT Testbed Thrust Leader

Abstract: This presentation will describe a power electronics based hardware testbed that can emulate an electric grid’s generation, loads, storage, and transmission network and perform several real-time scenarios while incorporating real measurement, control, communication, estimation, and actuation in the system.  The system can be used to represent faults, future grids with high levels of renewable penetration, and a multi-terminal HVDC overlay.  

The testbed has been used to represent a future North American grid model that has high penetration levels of renewables (>80%) and also for representing a distribution-level microgrid that has a flexible boundary and multiple points of grid connection.  The tool has been useful in developing control, protection, and measurements needed for the future electric grid.

Bio: Leon M. Tolbert received the Bachelor’s, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. He worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN, from 1991 until 1999 on electric distribution and power quality projects. He joined the University of Tennessee in 1999, and he is currently the Min H. Kao Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Dr. Tolbert is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Tennessee. He conducts research in utility applications of power electronics including microgrids, interface with renewable energy sources, and medium voltage multilevel converters incorporating silicon carbide power devices.

June 18, 2020 - Thursday from 10:00 am to 11:00 am

Shaping the Future of Electricity
Summer Fabus, Alex Magerko, Cameron Riley and Dr. Ben York from EPRI

Abstract: Utility goals to achieve clean energy portfolios, government policies, and customer interest in carbon-free electricity have stimulated the growth of renewable resources, with many of these resources being connected to distribution systems. Integrating distribution-connected resources can bring additional challenges to grid operators due to their variability and intermittency. Thus, utilities are seeking ways to efficiently control, store, and utilize renewable energy to maintain grid reliability and balance. The Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Integration team at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is exploring utility industry technical and economic challenges to integrate distributed solar, battery storage, and other DER. A significant part of DER Integration is understanding the behavior of DER out in the field and how DER may be controlled for maximum operational benefits. The DER Strategic Projects team works directly with distribution utilities by running large-scale field demonstrations of DER technologies. Field demonstrations may involve several stages depending on the project, including project design, laboratory evaluation, modeling and simulation, data collection, and analytics. This seminar will provide a background on EPRI and DER Strategic Projects, along with a few example demonstrations executed at utilities throughout the United States.

Bios: Summer Fabus graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Master’s in Business Administration in 2019. She has been working at EPRI for over a year in DER Strategic Projects. At EPRI, she assists with data analytics, performs cost-benefit analyses to implement DER technologies, and researches strategies for DER control and communication.

Alex Magerko graduated from the University of Illinois with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering and has now been working at EPRI for over three years in the Integration of DER program. There, he assists with large-scale demonstration projects related to photovoltaics (PV), energy storage, and other power distribution technologies. Specifically, he helps orchestrate execution of the projects, develops test plans, facilitates data intake, and analyzes field data.

Cameron Riley works in the Integration of DER team primarily focusing on data analysis, machine learning, and smart inverters. Cameron provides analytics for a variety of projects working with field-collected, simulated, and synthetic data sets. Cameron received his M.S. degree in electrical engineering focusing on power electronics in 2014 from the University of Tennessee and has been with EPRI for the past six years. 

Dr. Ben York manages the DER Strategic Projects team for EPRI, which seeks to apply EPRI research to current DER systems integration and interconnection challenges at utilities worldwide. Ben also leads ongoing research and technical discussions around inverter behavior, power quality, and distribution system grounding. Ben received his Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech in power electronics and has been with EPRI for the past seven years. 

June 19, 2020 - Friday from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

PMU Missing Data Recovery using Tensor Decomposition
Dr. Denis Osipov, Postdoctoral Research Associate, RPI

Abstract: Phasor measurement units (PMUs) are becoming more widespread throughout utilities in North America. Synchrophasors, obtained from PMUs, are utilized in various control and remedial action schemes for improving reliable operation of power systems. These controls require accurate and uninterrupted flow of data from PMUs. However, due to communication network congestion and other reasons, some data may be lost. This talk demonstrates a new approach for the recovery of missing PMU data. The approach is based on the application of tensor decomposition to PMU data organized as three-dimensional tensors with respect to time, location and type of variables. The organization of the PMU data is in the form of a bus-oriented data structure and a branch-oriented data structure. The approach is validated on the measured PMU data in the New York transmission system.

Bio: Denis Osipov received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Donetsk National Technical University, Donetsk, Ukraine in 2004 and 2005 respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN in 2018. He is currently a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA. His research interests include power system stability, modeling and monitoring.