Center for Advanced Power Engineering Research
Industry Advisory Board Meeting Highlights
March 27 – 28, 2019
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. The Industry Advisory Board (IAB), composed of industry members, meets twice per year with CAPER researchers and students 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. Mesut Baran, CAPER Site Co-Director at NC State, for hosting the 2-day meeting. Special thanks go to Shannon Jenkins and other staff members at NC State for the many arrangements that were required for this meeting. We also wish to thank our Industry Members, FREEDM Affiliates and students for participating in the Thursday evening Job Fair.
Location
The meeting took place on the campus of NC State in Raleigh. NC.
Attendees
There were 68 attendees with 23 Industry, 18 University Faculty and 27 Students.
Wednesday March 27, 2019 Workshop – Microgrid Monitoring and Control
Hosted by Siemens, this ½ workshop was open at no charge to faculty, students and industry. Maggie Clout of Siemens led the workshop covering the topics of definition of microgrids, microgrid components and trends, implementation approaches and lessons learned from several case studies.
Day One:
The meeting started at 8:00 am with a Welcome and Introductions by CAPER Steering Committee Chair Steve Whisenant.
Plenary Session – Threats to the US Grid – An Update led by Steven Whisenant, Duke Energy
This session featured two speakers, AMB. Hank Cooper, chairman of High Frontier and George Baker, professor emeritus James Madison University. AMD. Cooper shared Lessons from Lake Wylie Pilot Study and Dr. Baker discussed details of the Lake Wylie EMP Demonstration Project: Initials Cost Study to Protect Rock Hill and York County Minimis Essential Infrastructure Facilities.
Session I – Electrification of Transportation and it’s Impacts to the Grid led by Mike Mazzola, CAPER Center Director
The first presentation by Rick Fioravanti, Quanta Engineering, was titled “Utility Grid Impacts of Transportation Electrification”
Next, Tom Golden, EnergyUnited, shared with us “Plans for EV Infrastructure at NC Electric Coops”
The last speaker before lunch, Tom Reddoch, EPRI, shared his thoughts on “Trends in Electric Transportation”
After lunch, Session I continued with a discussion by Srdjan Lukic, NC State, on “Intelligent, grid-friendly, extreme fast chargers” and the work going on at NC State in this area.
Next, Dr. Rob Cox, UNC Charlotte, presented an update of his project on “Curbside-Charging Electric Vehicles for Urban Growth”
Following Rob, Tony Chamra of AECOM, shared with the audience an “Overview of Traction Power Supply for Light Rail and Streetcar Transit Systems” and specifically used the Charlotte light rail and street car projects as examples.
Session II – CAPER Project Updates led by Steven Whisenant
Base Projects:
PD-04: Development and Demonstration for a Power Electronics Assisted Distribution Voltage Regulator was presented by Dr. Tiefu Zhao, UNC Charlotte.
DM-02: Identification and Mitigation of Coordinated Attacks on Distributed Energy Management was presented by Dr. Badrul Chowdhury, UNC Charlotte and Dr. Aranya Chakrabortty, NC State.
Session III – CAPER Sponsored Sr Design Project – Final led by Steven Whisenant
The UNC Charlotte Team was introduced by Lindsey Stephens, Duke Energy and Steven Whisenant introduced the NC State Team. Both Teams did an outstanding job in presenting the results of their two semester work on the problem of designing a cost effective battery energy storage system that is capable of mitigating distribution circuit voltage sag, voltage flicker and solar intermittency.
Following Session III, a Reception and Job Fair were held which included representatives of CAPER industry members and FREEDM affiliate members. In all, 5 companies were there to discuss internships and employment opportunities with approximately 30 students in attendance.
Next day, Steven Whisenant summarized the highlights of the first day and introduced the next session
Session IV – CAPER Project Updates led by Steven Whisenant
Enhancement Projects:
EHP-02-PG: Development and Demonstration of a 40 kW Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator (PVSG) was presented by Dr. Ruiyang Yu of University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Ramtin Hadidi of Clemson University.
EHP-04-PG: Smart Battery Gauge was presented by a team led by Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow from NC State.
EHP-05-PD: Fundamentals Course was presented by Dr. Ramtin Hadidi of Clemson University.
Session V – Future of Electric Transpiration led by Mike Mazzola
Mike Rowand, Duke Energy, shared his thoughts on “What’s Coming in Electric Transportation – A look at the
vehicles, technology, and trends that will be shaping the vehicles, technology, and trends that will be shaping future.
Next Chris King, Siemens, delivered a presentation titled “Why flying taxis are no longer a hyperbole: how policies are enabling the eMobility market going forward”
The session closed with a talk by Dr. Khurram Kazi, Draper Lab, and Dr. Churlzu Lim, UNC Charlotte, on “Autonomous Charging Stations: Genesis of Machine to Machine Services Industry within Human Independent Ecosystem”
The meeting was adjourned with announcement of the following activities:
- Summer Research Planning Workshop – July 25 – 26 in Wilmington, NC
- Fall IAB Meeting – November 14-15 at UNC Charlotte in Charlotte, NC
- 2020 Spring IAB Meeting – date TBD at Clemson University
Lunch was served and a Closed Meeting of the Industry Advisory Board followed the main meeting in the FREEDM Boardroom.
CAPER Steering Committee met following the Closed IAB Meeting for two hours in the FREEDM Boardroom.
Presentations and Project Updates can be found by visiting www.caper-usa.com on the Members Only area of the website.