Annual Reports

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

In last year’s annual report, I wrote about our efforts to support massive spending from the Inflation Reduction Act targeting “electric vehicle infrastructure, renewable energy deployment, and grid expansion plans.” Our faculty, students, and staff were “weary” yet “motivated” by the impact of our research. This year’s word could be “uncertainty” due to many changes occurring at the federal level. But I prefer to focus on what I know for certain.

I am certain that FREEDM research addresses critical needs. The US grid is expected to add Gigawatts of load over the next few decades from additional data centers and the transition to electric transportation. As you will read in the following pages, we’re building more efficient electric machines to reduce energy consumption from EVs, we’re improving system reliability by applying large language models to prioritize alarms for utility control room operators, and we’re developing novel microgrid controls for optimization in design and operation. Our work improves the electric grid and accelerates the transition to clean energy.

I am certain that FREEDM will continue to recruit hard working, dedicated, and brilliant students. Attracted by our research and faculty expertise, they come to Raleigh, North Carolina not only from all over the United States but also from Bangladesh, India, El Salvador, Ghana, South Korea, and many other countries. I like this quote from Mitch Kapor, a software entrepreneur: “Genius is equally distributed across zip codes. Access and opportunity are not.” We must recruit globally to find the best talent to solve the hardest problems in power.

I am also certain that collaboration is required. Many of our projects involve faculty from different disciplines, representatives from our industry members, and support from multiple sources. Here are two current examples from dozens of active projects. Our 1 MW SST for vehicle fast charging involved four faculty, leveraged expertise from Danfoss, hardware from ABB, demonstration facilities from NYPA, and funding from the US DOE. We also have a team investigating power electronics operation at high ambient pressures that includes researchers from FREEDM and NCSU’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as well as input from component vendors. Creative solutions to hard problems require expertise across fields and input from multiple stakeholders.

Please review this report to learn more. Read the authors’ names and guess their home country, look for references to corporate participation and collaboration, and see for yourself how FREEDM continues to address one of the grand challenges of our time: the transition to clean energy and electrification.

Sincerely,
Iqbal Husain, PhD, IEEE Fellow
ABB Enrique Santacana Distinguished Professor
Director, FREEDM Systems Center