Industry Advisory Board  Meeting Highlights
March 12 – 13, 2018

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. Badrul Chowdhury, CAPER Site Co-Director at UNC Charlotte, and Dr. Mike Mazzola, EPIC Director, for hosting the 2-day meeting. Special thanks go to Michele Neely and other staff members at UNC Charlotte for the many arrangements that were required for this meeting. We also wish to thank our Industry Members, EPIC Affiliate Members and students for participating in the Monday evening Job Fair.

 Location
The meeting took place on the campus of UNC Charlotte in Charlotte. NC.

Attendees
There were 80 attendees with 25 Industry, 22 University Faculty and 33 Students.

Day One:
The meeting started at 1:00 pm with a Welcome and Introductions by CAPER Steering Committee Chair Steve Whisenant.

 Plenary Session – Power Grid Resiliency led by Mike Mazzola, Director of EPIC at UNC Charlotte
This session featured two speakers:

Session I – Preparing the Grid for HILF Events led by Steven Whisenant, Duke Energy

 The first presentation by John Anderson , Duke Energy , was titled “ Duke Energy Resiliency Initiative” John shared with us the steps Duke Energy went through to define and create programs and efforts to improve power grid resiliency.

Next, Kim Smith, Duke Energy, shared with us a high-level understanding of a utility’s regulatory structure and how utilities are regulated to serve its customers with adequate, reliable, and economical utility service.

Glen Snider, Duke Energy, closed the session with a presentation titled “Duke Energy IRP Planning process Overview. He highlighted the objectives of the IRP Process which strives to consider growth in customer consumption added with resource retirements to determine resource needs. He went on to say that the addition of distributed solar resources paired with the retirement of central generation over the planning horizon will require significant investment in the transmission and distribution systems to accommodate changing power flows.

Session II – CAPER Sponsored Senior Design Projects-Final Presentations led by Johan Enslin
Mark Goettsch of Duke Energy presented the original Problem Statement generated by Joe Hodges of SCE&G. Each member of the Senior Design Project #2 Teams at UNC Charlotte and NC State delivered their final presentations.

Following Session II, a Reception and Job Fair were held which included representatives of CAPER industry members and EPIC affiliate members. In all, 11 companies were there to discuss internships and employment opportunities with approximately 50 students in attendance.

During Dinner, Miguel Pando and others on the UNC Charlotte Team that traveled to document the impacts of Hurricane Maria on the island of Puerto Rico shared what it was like in the days following the disaster. The Team is headed back soon to further document the social and economic impacts of such a large disaster.

Session III – Grid Performance and Restoration Following HILF Events led by Steven Whisenant

  • Ed Ernst from NATF begin the session with a presentation titled “Transmission Grid Metrics and Quantifying Resiliency”
  • Next Dave McRee of Duke Energy shared responsibilities of his new role “Grid Emergency Preparedness”
  • Last speaker in the session was John McMurray talking about “Electric Co-op Emergency Response”

Session IV – Grid Resiliency Solutions for the Future led by Mike Mazzola
In this session three speakers shared their thoughts on what are future solutions to improve grid resiliency.

  • First Badrul Chowdhury presented  his thoughts on “Distributed Energy and Micro-grids as a Restoration Tool.”
  • Next Sam Waters of Duke Energy delivered a presentation titled “Planning and Operating the Transmission System for Resiliency”
  • The session  closed with Madhav Manjrekar presenting his research project “System Controls as a Restoration Tool”

Session V – CAPER Project Updates was led by Johan Enslin

Base Projects:
DM-1 Cyber Vulnerability Assessment of Electrical Power of Systems using Distributed Synchrophasors, was presented by the team from UNC Charlotte and NC State.
PD-3: Customer-Oriented Planning Strategies for Active Distribution Systems, was presented by the team of NC State and Clemson.

Next three Enhancement Projects were updated:

  1. EHP-01-PD: Resilient Distribution Systems and Optimization by UNC Charlotte and Clemson.
  2. EHP-02-PG: Development and Demonstration of a 40 kW Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator (PVSG) by NC State and Clemson
  3. EHP-03-EP: How State Regulators are Attributing Costs and Benefits to Distributed Generation by NC State and UNC Charlotte
  4. EHP-04-PG: Smarty Battery Gauge, was presented by the team from NC State and Clemson

Meeting was adjourned with announcement of the following activities:

  1. Sumer Research Planning Workshop – July 23 – 24 in Raleigh, NC
  2. Fall IAB Meeting – November 15-16 at Clemson in N. Charleston, SC
  3. 2019 Spring IAB Meeting – date TBD at NC State in Raleigh, NC

A Closed Meeting of the Industry Advisory Board followed the main meeting.