Graduate

We focus on the key developments in the implementation of demand response resources or DRRs, with special attention on their economics and policy aspects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) forecasts an achievable 2019 DRR penetration range of 4 – 14 % of system peak load in the various ISO/RTOs under its jurisdiction. We discuss the three key factors driving the rapid growth in the DRR implementation: the rollout of the smart grid, the emergence of curtailment service providers or aggregators, and the developments on the demand response policy front. The large-scale implementation of advanced metering solutions to replace the legacy metering infrastructure and the deployment of appropriate technologies, devices, and services to access and leverage energy usage information are direct outcomes of the smart grid advancements. The creation of an important new class of market participants – the load aggregators – makes possible the deeper penetration of DRRs as viable competitors to supply-side resources. Recent policies, starting with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and followed by FERC Order Nos. 719 and 745, and the various state-level initiatives have been instrumental in the removal of barriers to DRR participation and in bringing about the persistent deepening of DRR penetrations. We highlight some of the unintended consequences of FERC Order No. 745 and the challenges that deepening DRR penetrations present. While DRR curtailments result in lower loads, which reduce prices and emissions at specific nodes in the system during the curtailment hours, some portion of the curtailed energy is recovered in subsequent hours, resulting in impacts on prices and emissions in those hours — the so-called DRR payback effects. The recovery severely affects the economic benefits and emission reductions. Such outcomes underline the importance of the formulation and implementation of effective DRR policies.

TBA

Control center operation is becoming more complex as new and often-conflicting reliability, economics, and public policy issues emerge. Computer simulations will be required to analyze larger and larger amounts of system data (of different types) and what-if-scenarios to derive succinct information for operators to make informed decisions. Existing control center applications are primarily based on the original digital computing infrastructure first designed in the 1970's. While some incremental improvements have been made over the past several years, control center applications do not take full advantage of computing power in their existing infrastructure or in the computing industry in general.

High Performance Computing (HPC) and advanced computer are used widely within the government and in selected industry applications to solve important problems of high complexity, providing a factor from hundreds to millions times improvements in time-to-solution over desktop computer solutions. This presentation will share and discuss some research work of applying high performance computing to solve power system problems.

In this talk, I will discuss an emerging intersection of physical science and computer science, starting with a historical perspective in all-fluidic computation from the 60's. Advances in modern microfluidics lead to renewed interests in fluidic mechanisms for coding and computation in fluids. With absence of inertial forces at low Reynolds numbers in small geometries, we were faced with exploring new non-linearities that are intrinsic in multi-phase microfluidics. I will briefly describe our motivations for inventing a universal digital logic family in multi-phase microfluidics that utilizes drops and bubbles to compute. This first logic family was asynchronous leading to timing errors. Next, I will discuss latest advances from our lab that finally demonstrate a new synchronous universal droplet fluidic logic family and control. We will discuss scaling laws and demonstrate cascadable universal logic, feedback, fan-out and non-volatile ring memory. The presented platform opens up a scalable means to both program and manipulate matter and information simultaneously in integrated microfluidic systems. Exploring applications of microfluidics in low-resource settings and global health, I will finally describe a new platform we have recently invented that enables programmable microfluidics using old-school "punch card" tapes.

I will close the talk with (slightly unrelated) but fascinating demonstration of an artificial fluidic analogue of biological chemotaxis.

John Denniston was previously a Partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he co-founded and co-ran the firm's $1 billion Green Growth Fund. John retired from the firm in 2013. Before joining KPCB, John was a Managing Director and Head of Technology Investment Banking for the Western United States at Salomon Smith Barney. He also served on the Investment Committee for Salomon's venture capital direct investment fund and CitiGroup's venture capital fund-of-funds. Earlier in his career, John was a Partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he was Head of the firm's Venture Capital Practice Group and Co-Head of its Information Technology Practice Group. He also served on the investment committee for the firm's venture capital fund. John earned his B.A. in Economics and J.D. from the University of Michigan.

The "internet of everything" envisions trillions of connected objects loaded with high-bandwidth sensors requiring massive amounts of local signal processing, fusion, pattern extraction and classification, coupled with advanced multi-standard/multi-mode communication capabilities. Higher level intelligence, requiring local storage and complex search and matching algorithms, will come next, ultimately leading to situational awareness and truly "intelligent things" harvesting energy from their environment.

From the computational viewpoint, the challenge is formidable and can be addressed only by pushing computing fabrics toward massive parallelism and brain-like energy efficiency levels. We believe that CMOS technology can still take us a long way toward this vision. Our recent results with the PULP (parallel ultra-low power) open computing platform demonstrate that pj/OP (GOPS/mW) computational efficiency is within reach in today's 28nm CMOS FDSOI technology. In the longer term, looking toward the next 1000x of energy efficiency improvement, we will need to fully exploit the flexibility of heterogeneous 3D integration, stop being religious about analog vs. digital, Von Neumann vs. "new" computing paradigms, and seriously look into relaxing traditional "hardware-software contracts" such as numerical precision and error-free permanent storage.

With the help of a Smart Grid Investment Grant from DOE, SMUD completed over 40 smart grid initiatives valued at $308 million. SMUD also completed $43 million worth of R&D projects bringing total smart grid spending to over $350 million over a four-year period.

The eight broad smart grid categories included:
1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure
2. Distribution Automation
3. Consumer Behavior Study (Smart Pricing Options)
4. Customer Applications
5. Demand Response
6. Technology Infrastructure
7. Cyber Security and
8. R&D Projects

Many innovative projects were developed and implemented as part of this project and many lessons were learned while going through the process of designing initiatives, procuring and installing equipment, and implementing, operating and evaluating programs and pilots.

Jim Parks of SMUD will talk about the projects, highlight the lessons learned and discuss next steps.

Join us for another HappEE Hour

This week, we will have delicious Chinese food, as well as an assortment of beverages and music. Please bring proof of age (21+) if you plan on drinking alcohol.

Show up early at 5:00 PM to help us set up, and we will guarantee you a front place spot in the food line! That means NO WAITING and first dibs on all the dishes!

See you there!

- GSEE

The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series features talks from leaders in technology, business, finance, education and philanthropy, the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series continues to educate and inspire. Presented by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and BASES, we thank the venture capital firm of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for their continued support of the series and entrepreneurship education at Stanford. 

For details, please see etl.stanford.edu

The DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series features talks from leaders in technology, business, finance, education and philanthropy, the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series continues to educate and inspire. Presented by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and BASES, we thank the venture capital firm of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for their continued support of the series and entrepreneurship education at Stanford. 

For details, please see etl.stanford.edu