Electric Power Systems

Research, development, and teaching in Power Systems represent one of the foundations of LEES and of two of its predecessors, the Electric Power Systems Engineering Laboratory (EPSEL) and the High Voltage Research Laboratory (HVRL). Our focus has evolved from understanding and developing controls for the dynamics of power systems to developing high-efficiency generating units (e.g., our research into superconducting generators). Responding to recent trends in industrial demand, we have developed innovative costing and pricing systems, as well as advanced monitoring and control of system components and subsystems.

Power systems research at LEES today has two focal points. The first is in development, monitoring, and control of power apparatus, and the second is in development of system control logics for application in utility control rooms and in utility strategic and tactical planning. We are integrating these two areas into an overall structure, Performance Based Monitoring and Control (PBMaC).

Prior to work begun at LEES in the mid-1980s, the electric utility industry paid little attention to issues of monitoring and diagnostics of large power apparatus, specifically power transformers. With funding from a consortium of U.S. and foreign utilities, LEES undertook an integrated transformer monitoring project that developed a set of specific monitoring devices and the algorithms and logics needed to reduce the data to useful information and begin the process of failure diagnosis. The initial results of the LEES effort are now commercially available to the industry as the Transformer Monitoring Analysis System (TMAS). Further research and development on component monitoring and control is an integral portion of the PBMaC effort.

Researchers at LEES have played a major role in development of systems control logics for power system operations. This effort began with the development of the underlying theory and application of state estimation techniques for emergency state control, and is now continuing with an extensive research and development program in short-term (emergency) system response for voltage maintenance. Our present effort has resulted in control room logics under commercial test at the U.S. utilities and Electricite de France, sponsors of this effort.

Controlling the electrical system of the next century will present a new set of challenges prompted by a more open and competitive market for electrical energy. System controls will be based on short-term monitored information, and "softer" and less direct control signals. The trend toward greater numbers of independently owned generators, toward open access on the transmission system (retail wheeling), and toward greater interaction on the customer side of the meter is dramatically altering the underlying assumptions of central control of the power system. Under our PBMaC initiative, LEES is now leading the development of new concepts in monitoring and control that will provide the operating system stability and security needed in the decades ahead. Faculty and students working on Power Systems within LEES represent an interdisciplinary team from the engineering and policy sciences. Working together, we develop new concepts in equipment, monitoring, and control systems that operate in the rapidly changing regulatory and economic environment of the international electricity sector. Students working in this area develop expertise in control, in electrical machinery, and in utility economics and regulation through direct course work and team- based applied research at LEES.

Current Projects:

Nonintrusive Electrical Load Monitoring

Back to Top

About LEES Faculty Staff Students Projects Program Areas