Speaker: Lei Wu, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clarkson University
Title: Advanced Modeling and Optimization Techniques for Power System Operations
Abstract: The electric power grid has been recognized as an essential element of the nation’s energy infrastructure. In emerging power systems, smart grid technology has been playing an increasingly important role for enhancing energy reliability, sustainability, resiliency, and economics. Specifically, recent regulatory initiatives, technological advancements, and public policies have incentivized smaller, cleaner, and more distributed energy resource developments. Additionally, because of significant advantages over traditional coal-fired units, combined-cycle units have been increasingly installed in the last decade and are becoming an important generation technology in today’s power system operations. Indeed, faster ramping capability of combined-cycle units makes them ideal to support a deeper penetration of renewable distributed energy resources. Consequently, as part of the electricity market clearing process, independent system operators and regional transmission organizations today have to solve more computationally intensive Security-Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) models to accommodate these resources within a short time window. This talk will discuss advanced modeling and optimization techniques to facilitate the decision-making of independent system operators/regional transmission organizations and enhance the reliability and economics of power system operations. Various applications, including short-term power system operation with demand response, mid-term multiple energy resource scheduling, and long-term multi-stage multiple time-scale power system planning, will also be discussed.
Bio: Dr. Lei Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY. He received Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 2008. His primary research and teaching areas are focused on power and energy system optimization and control, with specific interests in the modeling of large-scale power systems with a high penetration of demand response and renewable energy. His educational and research activities are supported by NSF, DOE, NYSERDA, other federal/state/local agencies, and private industry. He has extensive experiences working with power industry such as GE Energy, NYISO, MISO, and National Grid. He is the co-author of over 70 journal papers and the recipient of several Transactions Prize Paper Awards from the IEEE Power and Energy Society. He is the receipt of NSF CAREER Award in 2013, IBM Smarter Planet Faculty Innovation Award in 2011, and John Graham Faculty Award at Clarkson in 2015. He serves as Editor or member of editorial boards of several internationally recognized journals.