SmartGrid

Power systems are facing grand challenges from increasing dynamics and stochastics from both the generation and the demand sides. This has caused great difficulty in designing and implementing optimal control for the grid in real time. Tremendous efforts have been spent in the past on computational methods and advanced modeling techniques that provide faster and better situational awareness, based on measurements from advanced grid sensors, PMU as an example. However, as grid operators are heavily involved in the decision-making process, the entire procedure has not been made fully automated, limiting the potential of such applications. That is, not only does the 'grid' need to perceive faster, it also needs to think and act faster. Towards this end, sub-second autonomous control schemes need to be developed. Over the past years, the PMU & System Analytics Group at GEIRI North America has built up an autonomous grid dispatch and control platform using deep reinforcement learning, the Grid Mind. Combined with Grid Eye, the grid monitoring and situational awareness platform, Grid Mind has demonstrated promise in helping address the pressing issues modern power systems faces. This talk will summarize this developmental effort while focusing on the key technologies utilized for the Grid Mind framework.

Recently, the academic and industrial literature has arrived at a consensus in which the electric power grid evolves to a more intelligent, responsive, and dynamic system that propels the sustainable energy transition. This evolution is caused by several drivers including decarbonization, growing electricity demand, deregulation of electricity markets, active end-user participation, and digital innovations in energy technologies. On the supply side, the introduction of variable energy resources (VERs), like solar and wind, necessitates fundamental changes in the power grid's dynamic operation. VER forecasts are uncertain and their profiles are intermittent thus requiring greater quantities of operating reserves. In such a case, fast-ramping natural gas and hydro-electric power plants take on a prominent grid balancing role. At higher levels of solar PV and wind generation, dispatchable demand-side resources become the only remaining option for grid balancing. These devices are not just energy artifacts, but also exist within other engineering systems. Consequently, their integration gives rise to new multi-disciplinary challenges such as electrified transportation and the energy-water nexus. This presentation seeks to shed light on the increasingly intertwined futures of energy, water, and transportation resources. It draws upon three full-scale case studies: The ISO New England System Operational Analysis and Renewable Energy Integration Study, New England Energy-Water Nexus Study, and Abu Dhabi Electric Vehicle Integration Study. Together, these studies show that while all three types of resources have the potential to disrupt the other, they can also be harmonized to create sustainable synergies across all three engineering systems

Individuals of all genders invited to be a part of:
#StanfordToo: A Conversation about Sexual Harassment in Our Academic Spaces, where we will feature real stories of harassment at Stanford academic STEM in a conversation with Provost Drell, Dean Minor (SoM), and Dean Graham (SE3). We will have plenty of time for audience discussion on how we can take concrete action to dismantle this culture and actively work towards a more inclusive Stanford for everyone. While our emphasis is on STEM fields, we welcome and encourage participation from students, postdocs, staff, and faculty of all academic disciplines and backgrounds.

The deployment of smart meters throughout California a decade ago resulted in a host of startups with ideas to leverage the new wealth of data to reduce energy consumption and customer bills. But few if any profitable businesses emerged. More recently, new state legislation and regulatory changes support a "pay for performance" approach to energy efficiency that holds great promise for innovative data analytics. This talk will focus on the opportunity, HEA's participation, and the remaining barriers. needs, without needing reformulations of existing scheduling approaches, and therefore to be able to use them in actual system operation.

In this presentation, I would like to discuss with you how to establish a sustainable and smart society through the internet of energy for connecting at any time and any place. I suspect that you have heard the phrase, "Internet of Energy" less often. The meaning of this phrase is simple. Because of a ubiquitous energy transmission system, you do not need to worry about a shortage of electric power. One of the most important items for establishing a sustainable society is [...]

"Inaugural Linvill Distinguished Seminar on Electronic Systems Technology," EE News, July 2018

As prices for solar photovoltaics and battery energy storage plummet, grids around the globe are undergoing tremendous changes. How should we design and operate grids in the future in the presence of these technologies? This talk will cover some of my group's recent efforts to answer this question, focusing on a new approach to decentralized network optimization – a variant of the primal-dual subgradient method — that can be used to enable grid-integration of distributed energy resources such as solar photovoltaics, batteries and electric vehicles. I will then discuss how grids should be built in the future when distributed energy resource costs are so low. Using a simple concept called an iso-reliability curve, I will explain a method to identify cost-optimal fully decentralized systems – i.e. standalone solar home systems. After applying this method to a large solar resource dataset, I will present results indicating that in many unelectrified parts of the world, future decentralized systems will be able to deliver electricity at costs and reliabilities better than existing centralized grids.

The seminars are scheduled for 1:30 pm on the dates listed above. The speakers are renowned scholars or industry experts in power and energy systems. We believe they will bring novel insights and fruitful discussions to Stanford. This seminar is offered as a 1 unit seminar course, CEE 272T/EE292T. Interested students can take this seminar course for credit by completing a project based on the topics presented in this course.

Yours sincerely,
Smart Grid Seminar Organization Team,

Ram Rajagopal, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Electrical Engineering
Sila Kiliccote, Managing Director of Grid Innovations, Bits & Watts 
Chin-Woo Tan, Director, Stanford Smart Grid Lab 
Yuting Ji, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Since 2015, Tesla has installed a total of over one gigawatt-hour of energy storage that is critical for using renewable energy at scale. Over 20,000 customers across 40 countries are using Tesla stationary storage products for a variety of sustainable energy applications: powering filtration systems for clean water in Puerto Rico, stabilizing the grid in Australia, cooling classrooms in Hawaii, and powering entire islands in the South Pacific, etc. This talk will introduce the general efforts of Tesla's Energy Optimization Team, which develops the "brain" of its energy storage products. Optimization and machine learning techniques are utilized on all different products. A few recent projects will also be presented.

The seminars are scheduled for 1:30 pm on the dates listed above. The speakers are renowned scholars or industry experts in power and energy systems. We believe they will bring novel insights and fruitful discussions to Stanford. This seminar is offered as a 1 unit seminar course, CEE 272T/EE292T. Interested students can take this seminar course for credit by completing a project based on the topics presented in this course.

Yours sincerely,
Smart Grid Seminar Organization Team,

Ram Rajagopal, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Electrical Engineering
Sila Kiliccote, Managing Director of Grid Innovations, Bits & Watts 
Chin-Woo Tan, Director, Stanford Smart Grid Lab 
Yuting Ji, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Power electronic converters impact all aspects of power systems – generation (renewable), transmission, distribution and end use. Power electronics is the key technology that enables reliable and secure integration of very large-scale renewable resources to the grid, new architectures including micro-grids, distributed grid control, and the rapid shift to electric transportation. This talk will highlight power electronics and controls in advanced PV inverters, wind energy systems, solid-state transformers and EV infrastructure. Key concepts that explain how the advanced functionalities are realized will be described. Recent advances in high voltage power electronics with wide bandgap devices, new topologies, and emerging trends and research challenges will be presented.

The seminars are scheduled for 1:30 pm on the dates listed above. The speakers are renowned scholars or industry experts in power and energy systems. We believe they will bring novel insights and fruitful discussions to Stanford. This seminar is offered as a 1 unit seminar course, CEE 272T/EE292T. Interested students can take this seminar course for credit by completing a project based on the topics presented in this course.

Yours sincerely,
Smart Grid Seminar Organization Team,

Ram Rajagopal, Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Electrical Engineering
Sila Kiliccote, Managing Director of Grid Innovations, Bits & Watts
Chin-Woo Tan, Director, Stanford Smart Grid Lab
Yuting Ji, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

California has the will, ambition, technology and legal requirement to decarbonize our energy sector by 2045. In the dozen years since passage of AB32, we have made great progress but we may be making some grave mistakes. In this discussion, Dr. Fine describes how distributed energy resources are presenting new opportunities in distribution resources, transmission and procurement planning, and market reforms that will determine if our clean energy future is one that is affordable for all.

This talk provides an overview of Siemens Corporate Technology's recent research on new control functions for future power systems. Three different topics are discussed: (a) adaptive power oscillation damping optimization to increase the stability reserve of power systems, (b) robust power flow optimization to increase power system resilience to volatile generation, and (c) new research challenges for autonomous microgrids that provide autonomous operation and plug-and-produce capabilities.