Jones Seminar: Scalable Grid Architectures for Intelligent Electrification & Decarbonization

OPTIONAL ZOOM LINK 
Meeting ID: 923 9477 7186
Passcode: 501051

Unblocking interconnection queues will unleash terawatts of new, distributed generation, e.g., solar PV and wind, across high-voltage transmission and low voltage distribution (T&D) systems. At times, these weather-driven, variable sources will send clean energy across electricity networks to fully supply billions of electrified loads and distributed energy resources (DERs), including electric heat-pumps, electric vehicle chargers, and various form of energy storage. At other times, the loads and DERs will need to adapt to the available supply or regional grid bottlenecks. 

This adaptation will require intelligent coordination of electric DERs to defer the right amount of demand, at the right times, and in the right locations in the grid. To facilitate such intelligent electrification while guaranteeing grid reliability at all times will require combining data available to grid operators and third-party DER Operators with scalable control architectures. This talk will present different architectures within the context of distributed control and optimization that facilitate the integration of DER flexibility across T&D interfaces. Furthermore, since many controllable loads will reside in low-voltage networks, we will discuss appropriate architectures for aggregating the capability of a fleet of DERs into responsive virtual power plants (VPPs) that are also cognizant of grid bottlenecks.

Hosted by Professor Vikrant Vaze.

About the Speaker(s)

Mads Rønne Almassalkhi
L. Richard Fisher Associate Professor, University of Vermont

Mads R. Almassalkhi is the L. Richard Fisher Associate Professor at the University of Vermont. His research focuses on engineering flexibility for power/energy syand optimize grid utilization. Topics of interest span advanced distribution and transmission system operations, modeling, control, and optimization of distributed energy resources (DERs) for grid-aware coordination, and all things battery storage. He currently serves as the founding Director for UVM's newest center on energy and autonomy, CREATE. His work has featured in IEEE Spectrum and he has been recognized with an NSF CAREER award in 2021 and as the Otto Mønsted Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 2022, and as the 2022 Copenhagen Goodwill Ambassador (co-recipient) by Copenhagen Capacity for inspiring constructive dialogue on immigration reform. 

He also holds a joint appointment at PNNL as Chief Scientist and is currently working with NYSERDA as the Grid Architect to help design, plan, and realize NY’s vision for a Grid of the Future. Previously, he was co-founder of Packetized Energy, a clean-tech startup acquired by EnergyHub in 2022. Before that he was Lead Engineer at startup Root3 Technologies in Chicago, IL. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2013 in Electrical Engineering Systems and dual major in electrical engineering and applied mathematics from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2008. When he is not working on energy riddles or teaching, he spends his time with his amazing wife and their three wonderful children.

Contact

For more information, contact Amos Johnson at amos.l.johnson@dartmouth.edu.