A recent study published by Dr. Srdjan Lukic and PhD candidate Zeljko Pantic shows great improvements in inductive charging efficiency

Recent improvements in wireless, or inductive power transfer (IPT) are making the possibility of charging electric vehicles without plugging them in a very real possibility. A recent development by Center researchers Dr. Srdjan Lukic and Zeljko Pantic have shown how the efficiency of IPT can be significantly improved by dynamic tuning to the magnetic resonance of the system

The new developments were picked up by a number of news sources recently such as: TG Daily The Green Optimistic , R&D Magazine , phys.org and The Engineer in the UK.

The FREEDM Systems Center is pleased to announce the publication of our fourth year annual report.

The annual report comes in two volumes and is presented annually to both members of the center and to the NSF in advance of their annual review. Members of the center can log in to the intranet and access the annual report here.

Volume I of the report contains critical information on the various programmatic functions of the center including the Research, Education, and Industry and Innovation Programs. Volume II of the annual report includes specific project reports for both core and associated research projects.

The annual report encompasses the progress of the entire center and represents the tremendous efforts of all of the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Industry of the center over the fourth year of existence as an NSF ERC.

Advanced substation automation products from ABB to help engineering students with critical energy research and technological innovation, strengthening a close partnership between ABB and North Carolina State University.

ABB, ( NYSE:ABB) the leading power and automation technology group, today announced it has provided new, state-of-the-art substation automation products to the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems Center – the FREEDM Systems Center – at North Carolina State University.

This donation of Relion® Family protection and control devices, MicroSCADA Pro® substation automation control and small SCADA systems and remote terminal units, as well as support and training of various power hardware and software for FREEDM researchers, will allow engineering students and researchers at the FREEDM Systems Center to step up testing and feasibility of new, “smart grid” compliant solutions based on the IEC 61850 communication standards, and to integrate new functionality into existing power grid equipment.

“We are grateful to ABB for their generous donation of substation relays and power electronics equipment,” said Dr. Alex Huang, Director, FREEDM Systems Center. “This equipment will allow our students and our researchers to take our Green Energy Hub research and technology demonstration laboratory to a higher level as we continue to help shape America’s power grid for the needs of the 21st century.”

The donation, valued at around $130,000, strengthens what is already a solid, long-term partnership between ABB and NC State University. ABB’s Power Products and Power Systems division North American headquarters, along with the ABB US Corporate Research Center and the new ABB Smart Grid Center of Excellence, are all located on NC State’s Centennial Campus. ABB was the original anchor tenant on Centennial Campus, going back to 1990.

Additionally, ABB last year made a gift creating $1.2 million in initiatives that helped create a new Endowed Professorship with NC State’s College of Engineering, as well as an ABB Power Engineering Scholarship program, offering five awards annually to students taking power engineering classes.

“We are pleased to provide the advanced substation automation solutions to NC State’s FREEDM Center as they continue their world-class research initiatives in modernizing the power grid,” said Steven Kunsman, Vice President and General Manager for ABB’s Substation Automation Products in North America. “Today’s substation automation products supporting high speed standardized communication architectures will allow research of advanced automation schemes supporting the FREEDM Center’s Smart Grid and MicroGrid development of new innovations related to renewable energy sources, electric vehicles and other forward-thinking 21st century technologies.”

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 135,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, employ about 20,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service and other major facilities.

For more information, please contact: 
Bill Rose, ABB Media Relations 
919-807-5743 – office
919-244-4879 – mobile
bill.rose@us.abb.com

The Centennial Campus Smart Grid Feasibility Study shows the existing resources on the campus and lays out a number of options for moving forward with a large scale fully integrated smart grid demonstration.

The report was developed by a dedicated team of fellows in conjunction with several North Carolina State University entities such as NCSU Facilities Operations, The Sustainability Office, the NC Solar Center, Advanced Energy and the FREEDM Systems Center. Follow up actions to the report are to establish a formal committee to plan and seek funding to implement such a system.

here

Congratulations to the following individuals for being awarded the NSF ERC FREEDM Systems Center Graduate Fellowships for 2012!

James McLamara, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student guided by Dr. Alex Huang of NC State, and David Kelle, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student guided by Dr. Chris Edrington and Dr. Sanjeev Srivastava at Florida State University, received full $30,000 fellowships to begin their doctoral research with FREEDM Fall 2012.

Tom Roth, a computer science Ph.D. student guided by Dr. Bruce McMillin of Missouri S&T, and Eric Green, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student guided by Dr. Subhashish Bhattacharya of NC State received supplemental $5,000 fellowships.

Congratulations and we look forward to working with these brilliant doctoral students!

Previous award recipients can be seen here.

Story originally from the IBM Asset Management blog.

Everyone is talking about smaller carbon footprints, green energy, sustainability and visions of smarter cities on a smarter planet. But is it really achievable or is it just the latest vision to make us all become better citizens? That is what I set out to investigate for today's blog.

We've all heard that real estate is the 2nd largest expense on the balance sheet for most companies & that by 2025 buildings will be the #1 consumer of energy, but what really gets me is that an estimated 50% of energy and water in buildings is often wasted. That coupled with varying electric pricing to compensate for peak utilization should be enough for everyone to start realizing that our current path of utilization is not sustainable.

Knowing that solutions from IBM including Maximo Asset Management, Intelligent Building Management and all of the TRIRIGA solutions from the recent acquisition are helping clients to build smarter cities, starting with smarter buildings, I decided to preview a client success story that would be featured at IBM Pulse 2012.

I reached out to Dr. Bill Winner, a professor from North Carolina State University (NCSU) to learn more about what's going on at NCSU. I learned quickly that at NCSU they are doing more than just talking, they are leading discussions with more than 70 businesses in Research Triangle Park, NC around smarter grids, smarter campuses and smarter cities at the 9th annual Sustainable Energy Conference. Their goals go beyond just making NCSU a renowned "Smarter City" that you see from the airport, they want to help advance sustainability and technology across the globe. As Bill put it "the nations that get this right will be the global leaders supplying the others".

To get an overview of IBM's partnership with NCSU at the FREEDM Systems Center and the overall Energy-Management, Sustainability Solutions for Smarter Enterprises announcement visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32586.wss

[Listen to how Bill summed up the vision to advance sustainability across the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL9OmU8nFgc.]

[It's easy to see that Bill is passionate about this and eager to share more of the story. Here's his personal invitation for you to attend the "Campus Smarter Buildings Panel - the Model for Smarter Cities" session 1575 at Pulse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_xhTdeoG6c.]

Stay tuned for future blog installments where I dive deeper into the IBM partnership with NCSU at the FREEDM Systems Center.......on a mission to build a smarter city, 1 building at a time.

The original story can be found on the IBM Asset Management blog post.