Advanced Energy Systems and Technologies

The research programs of the Energy Group address today's and tomorrow's energy challenges covering key topics such as renewable energy, power electronics, automated maintenance, high-performance simulation, intelligent systems, electricity market structures, and power infrastructure defense. The group faculty consists of Professors Rich Christie, Mark Damborg, Mohamed El-Sharkawi, Chen-Ching Liu, Alexander Mamishev and Kai Strunz. The activities of this faculty regularly involve others from such "tangential" areas as communications, control, electromagnetics, materials and economics resulting in a rich collaboration.

As recent electrical blackouts demonstrate, electrical grids can be fragile requiring careful management and protective measures. The Energy Group works in the area of system protection and restoration through the application of wide-area measurement and communication of data along with new control strategies. Some of this system fragility results from the demands of electric power markets and the understanding of the market structure's influence on system performance is an important area of investigation.

Another active area is the development of new approaches to improving power quality, i.e. maintaining adequate and uninterrupted service at nominal voltage and frequency. One such activity is the development of new sensors and robotic vehicles to inspect underground cables to detect defective components before failure occurs. Another is the study of the dynamics of the system when interacting with new electronic devices intended to improve aspects of power quality, the concern being that the electronic switching actions will disturb proper system dynamic behavior. A rather different, interdisciplinary project involves designing the power system to support a complex of underwater, robotic, exploratory vehicles proposed for the Juan de Fuca geological plate off the Pacific Northwest coast.

Power electronic devices coupled with new control algorithms are important for managing modern electric drives. New types of motors provide for performance improvements in applications ranging from automotive to industrial and this performance can be enhanced with new algorithms and strategies, often based on intelligent systems concepts. Another important activity concerns the energy system of the future focusing on the concepts and electronics for integrating renewable and distributed energy sources into the system.

The research of the group is supported both by Federal agencies and by industry. In particular, the Electric Energy Industrial Consortium is a group of local industries that regularly interact with the faculty and students in education as well as research. The group is also coupled with other universities and international corporations through the Advanced Power Technologies Center.