2026 Spring Meeting Highlights

 

The Center for Advanced Power Engineering 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.  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 opportunities to engage students.

 

We wish to thank Dr. Robert Cox, CAPER Director and Dr. Badrul Chowdhury, CAPER Co-Director for hosting the meeting.  Special thanks go to Shannon Jenkins for all the many arrangements that were required for this event.  We also wish to thank our Industry, Faculty and Student Members for participating in the Meeting, Reception and Poster Session.

 

Location –The meeting took place in the Harris Alumni Center at UNC Charlotte.

Attendees – 87 (Faculty – 14, Industry – 23, Students – 50)

Wednesday, March 25th, 2026
 

8:00 am – 12:00 pm  – CLOSED MEETING – IAB Members
Open to all attendees of companies that are Industry Members of CAPER – (2026 Research Proposals Presented for Award Consideration)

 

1:00 pm – Welcome, Safety Moment, Meeting Objectives and CAPER Impact Report led by Dr. Robert Cox of UNC Charlotte and CAPER Director

 

Opening Keynote Address – State of Reliability in North America by Mark Lauby, NERC Fellow and Chief Engineer

Mark shared NERC’s mission to develop reliability standards that assure effective and efficient risk reductions to the North American bulk power system.  The session emphasized challenges with renewable integration, BPS resource growth and the “Energy Policy Tri-Lemma”.

 

Panel Session – Balancing Reliability & Affordability in the Southeast – led by Drew Clarke, Duke Energy and CAPER Steering Committee Chair

Nate Rice of Dominion Energy and Thomas Beatty of Duke Energy shared insights on their respective companies’ integrated resource planning, focusing on long-term energy strategies.

 

CAPER – Sponsored Senior Design Project – led by Drew Clarke of Duke Energy, Becca Rye of Dominion Energy and Jim Stoupis of ABB

Participating teams from UNC Charlotte, Clemson University and NC State University provided updates from the 2025 Fall semester deliverables, which were to develop protection requirements and settings for system under study for distribution kV levels.  The 2026 Spring semester effort period will focus on developing settings for the transmission side.  Project Title:  “Design and Implementation of System Protection Schemes for Electric Utilities”. 

 

Day 1 was followed with a Reception and CAPER Project Poster Session (Closed Session – Open to CAPER Members only).

Thursday, March 26th, 2026

9:00 am – Highlights from Day 1 and Objectives for Day 2 led by Drew Clarke of Duke Energy and CAPER Steering Committee Chair

Panel Session – Research & Supply Chain Challenges Due to Large Load Demand – led by Dr. Robert Cox of UNC Charlotte and CAPER Director

Huangjie Gong of ABB discussed challenges surrounding DC Implementation: A “Chicken-and-Egg” problem where infrastructure lags due to lack of demand, and demand lags due to lack of infrastructure.  He continued with ways to promote products that work on both AC and DC, easing the transition for consumers.

Jonathan Landy of Duke Energy provided an overview for building a smarter energy future; challenges with adding capacity and modernizing the grid to meet demand growth while maintaining reliability and affordability for customers.

Alejandro Schnakofsky of Prevalon Energy shared capacity growth to be addressed with gas, turbine markets and other choke points to consider; and how demand growth can be a generational opportunity for actual energy independence.

 

CAPER Research Projects – Overview 

PD-06: “A Machine Learning Based Automated Load Model Parameterization Tool” presented by Lead PI, Dr. Ning Lu of NC State University.

PD-07: “Data Center Load Characterization for Grid Analysis and Planning” presented by Lead PI, Dr. Dingrui Li of Clemson University

PD-08: “Bad Data Detection and Investigation of Measurement Schemes to Improve Real-Time Power Flow Performance in Distribution Circuits with Solar Generation” presented by Lead PI Dr. Valentina Cecchi of UNC Charlotte

 

Closing Keynote Address – Reliability: More than Megawatts by Tim Ponseti, SERC Reliability Corp. Vice President, Operations

Tim delivered the closing keynote, offering an overview of SERC’s core mission, which is to assure effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the bulk power system.  He shared the top 10 emerging risks to consider, regional load growth forecasts and essential “Reliability Building Blocks” to support changing landscapes in grid demand.

 

Closing and Next Meeting

The meeting adjourned after announcing the next Meeting will be hosted by Dominion Energy in Glen Allen, VA on November 3rd-4th, 2026.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CAPER | caper-usa.com | Contact: Shannon Jenkins / CAPER Administrator