The Center for Advanced Power Engineering and Research (CAPER) is a collaboration among three universities and industry members focusing on research and educational needs in the electric power industry in the southeast region of the US. CAPER holds two General Meetings each year, spring and fall, each hosted by a member University. In attendance are CAPER researchers and students along with industry and government representatives to present current industry topics, update sponsored projects and take part in discussions about the Center’s research and education activities.
We wish to thank Dr. Robert Cox, CAPER Center Director at UNC Charlotte, for hosting this in-person meeting. Special thanks go to Shannon Jenkins for all the many arrangements that were required for this meeting. We also wish to thank our Industry Members, Faculty and Students for participating in the General Meeting, Reception and Poster Session.
Location – The meeting took place at the Popp Martin Student Union on the campus of UNC Charlotte.
Attendees – 103 (Faculty – 13, Industry – 38, Students – 52)
Thursday October 17th, 2024
At 8:00 am, a CLOSED MEETING of the Industry Advisory Board, IAB, was held. IAB meetings are open to all employees of companies that are CAPER Industry Members.
The IAB met to elect officers for 2025. Rebecca Rye, Dominion Energy, was elected Chair and Kat Sico, Duke Energy was elected Vice-Chair for 2025. The IAB discussed the upcoming research solicitation and current budget.
Presentations and Project Updates can be found by visiting www.caper-usa.com on the Members Only section of the website.
Plenary Session – Balancing the Pace of Change while Designing Resiliency into the Grid, Led by Robert Cox, UNC Charlotte / EPIC & CAPER Director
Nelson Peeler, Duke Energy, opened the session with reliability, resiliency, and the changes the generation resource mix is undergoing. The mix is moving from large central generators to smaller units, renewables, and distributed energy resources. This changes how the grid is operated. Nelson went on to share several of the challenges faced by the electric utility industry and how these challenges can be addressed in light of the rapid changes.
Session I – Generation Resilience led by Becca Rye, Dominion Energy / CAPER IAB Chair
Jim McClay, Duke Energy, opened the session with a discussion on fuel supply chain.
John Larson, Dominion Energy, shared an overview of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
The session then got updates from CAPER Projects PD-05: Inertia Estimate Using Synchrophasor Measurements and MRA-02-PD: Impacts of Managed Charging and Other Innovative Rates for Electric Vehicle Charging on Utility Load and the Grid System.
Session II – Metrics and Impacts, led by Valentina Cecchi, UNC Charlotte
Weijia Liu, NREL, shared NREL’s efforts on quantifying resilience using a variety of pre- and post-event metrics.
Jeff Thomas, North Carolina Utilities Commission Public Staff, then shared the perspective of a consumer advocate on resilience and reliability, particularly in light of major events.
Progress on CAPER Project EHP-09-PG: DER Protection Guidelines and Settings was then presented by the researchers.
Session III – Transforming Grid, led by Ramtin Hadidi, Clemson University / CAPER Center Co-Director
Michael Caravaggio, EPRI, led off this session with an overview of how EPRI is approaching risk, including lessons learned from recent events, and working to mitigate it via a variety of new solutions.
Chris Clippinger, POWER Engineers, discussed the complexity of distribution microgrids, the key providers, main components, and design considerations.
The session ended with receiving updates from CAPER Projects PD-06: A Machine Learning based Automated Load Model Parameterization Tool and MRA-01-PD/EHP-10-PD: Improving Power Flow Performance for IVVC Application on NC Distribution Feeders with DER.
Session IV – CAPER Sponsored Senior Design Project, led by Drew Clarke, Duke Energy / CAPER Steering Committee Chair
Senior Design Teams from Clemson, UNC Charlotte, NC State, and Western Carolina presented their progress on this year’s CAPER sponsored senior design project.
Session IV was followed with a Reception, Career Fair, and CAPER Project Poster Session.
Friday October 18th, 2024
The meeting started at 8:30 am with a working breakfast to discuss potential research topics. (Please see “Research Topics to Consider for CAPER’s 2025 Proposal Solicitation” referenced below.)
Session V – Preparing for Resiliency from History, led by Kat Sico, Duke Energy / CAPER IAB Vice-Chair
Dasola Ademola, Dominion Energy, began the second day’s session with an overview of Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD) and Geomagnetically Induced Current (GIC) before discussing testing Dominion Energy performed to study the impacts of GIC on transformers.
Mike Sykes, Duke Energy, followed with a discussion of substation flood protection methods and utility considerations on determining how to deploy based on historical performance.
Kevin Quigley, Dominion Energy, finished the session by sharing what was observed during the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse, particularly in terms of solar generation.
Session VI – New Technologies and Strategies, led by Ning Lu, NC State University / CAPER Center Co-Director
Jesse Bukenberger, EPRI, began the session with considerations for resilience in capacity expansion with a discussion on climate impacts, vulnerability assessments, and adaptation planning.
Brant Werts, Duke Energy, shared Duke Energy’s work on non-traditional transmission solution screening and grid enhancing technologies.
Jeremy Lawrence, EPRI, spoke on the challenges faced by cybersecurity on distributed generation and discussed hardware-based protection.
Closing and Next Meeting
Drew Clarke closed the Fall General Meeting with an announcement of the 2025 spring meeting to be hosted by Clemson University in Charleston, SC on March 18th – 19th. The working theme is to be announced.
