FREEDM is offering a series of six seminars to inform our students about the overall mission and research at the Center. These will be offered every Wednesday from noon to 1 pm eastern US time. Recordings of each seminar will be available the day after the live presentation. Industry members and the public are welcome to join the webex presentation online through the links below.
Seminar 1, October 12
Energy Sustainability and Distributed Energy Resources
Dr. Joe DeCarolis will provide an overview of current and future energy systems, the associated environmental impacts of energy choices, and how distributed energy resources will shape the future of the grid. Dr. DeCarolis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. His primary research focus is the development and application of energy system models to analyze how technology and public policy can shape a sustainable future. He is a key contributor to the FREEDM Cost Benefit Analysis project.
Download seminar 1 slides here.
Seminar 2, October 19
DER Integration Challenges
Dr. David Lubkeman will provide an overview of current utility electric power distribution circuits, how these circuits are currently operated, and the challenges of integrating higher levels of distributed energy resources, such as photovoltaic generation. Dr. Lubkeman is a Research Professor at NC State University with primary research interests in distribution system analysis, grid automation and integration of distributed energy resources. He is subthrust leader for the FREEDM Green Energy Hub testbed.
Download seminar 2 slides here.
Seminar 2a
Power Systems Background and Cost Benefit Analysis
In this video, Dr. Gerald Heydt provides an overview of traditional power system design and characteristics of today’s distribution system. He also discussed some aspects of power system economics and the Cost Benefit Analysis for utilities to implement the FREEDM System. This presentation is presented here as a separate video but a portion is also included in Seminar 3. Dr. Heydt is a Regents’ Professor and Professor of Advanced Technology at Arizona State University. He is a contributor to the FREEDM Cost Benefit Analysis project.
Download seminar 2a slides here.
Seminar 3, October 26
FREEDM System Overview
Dr. Iqbal Husain and Dr. Gerald Heydt will review the system components, explain the main functions of each, and elaborate on the system controls. The presentation will also link each description to the Center core research projects. Dr. Husain is the Director of the FREEDM Systems Center and the ABB Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State. He also leads the System Theory, Modeling and Controls research thrust at FREEDM. Dr. Heydt is a Regents’ Professor and Professor of Advanced Technology at Arizona State University.
Download seminar 3 slides here.
Seminar 4, November 2
FREEDM Power Management with SSTs
Dr. Alex Huang will provide an overview of solid state transformer (SST) technology developed at FREEDM. He will discuss how the features of the SST can help utilities to address multiple issues related to power quality and power management. Dr. Huang is the Progress Energy Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering at NC State and the founding director of FREEDM. He is an IEEE fellow with primary research interests in power semiconductor devices and power electronics.
Download seminar 4 slides here.
Seminar 5, November 9
DGI in the FREEDM System
Professors Bruce McMillin, Mesut Baran and Mo-Yuen Chow will explain how Distributed Grid Intelligence (DGI) in the FREEDM System manages communications and power resources in the face of failures and cyber attacks. Examples will include Cooperative Distributed Energy Scheduling (CoDES) and Volt-Var control. Professor McMillin is Associate Dean for the College of Engineering and Computing at Missouri S&T and serves as Director of the National Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education. Professor Baran leads the Electric Power Systems Engineering Professional Masters program at NC State and leads the Cost Benefit Analysis Project at FREEDM. Professor Chow is Director of the Advanced Diagnosis, Automation and Control Laboratory at NC State and his research focuses on distributed control systems. (Note that the audio quality of the recording is very poor initially but is corrected after slide 2.)
Download seminar 5 slides here.
Seminar 6, November 16
FREEDM System Protection
Professor George Karady and Dr. Mischa Steurer will explain system protection in the FREEDM System including development of the Fault Isolation Device (FID) and pilot directional protection. Professor Karady is the Salt River Chair Professor at Arizona State University in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering. He is an IEEE Fellow and has expertise in power electronics, high-voltage engineering, and power systems. Dr. Stuerer leads the power systems group at the Florida State University Center for Advanced Power Systems where he focuses on hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulation and modeling of integrated power systems for all-electric ships and future terrestrial power systems.
Download seminar 6 slides here.