Three of five Illinois engineering projects funded in Siebel Energy Institute’s debut are from Grainger CEME professors

The University of Illinois is one of only eight research institutions worldwide chosen to be part of the Siebel Energy Institute (SEI) launched on August 4, 2015 with funding of nearly $1 million. Illinois projects represent research teams from the Departments of Computer Science, ECE, Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Information Trust Institute. Grainger CEME faculty members are principal investigators on three of these projects.
According to Thomas M. Siebel, “The mission of the Siebel Energy Institute (SEI) is to dramatically accelerate primary research to advance the science of machine learning and analytics as it relates to energy, oil and gas, and power systems. All research that is supported by the SEI will be freely available in the public domain through the Non-Exclusive Royalty Free license protocol used by consortium member universities.”

CEME researchers’ projects funded in this inaugural grant are:
• Load Model Parameter Estimation Using Field Measurement Data for Voltage
Optimization Applications in Distribution Systems
Lead researcher: Thomas Overbye
• A Measurement-Based Optimal Power Flow Approach to Voltage Control in Power
Distribution Systems
Lead researchers: Alejandro Domínguez-García and Peter Sauer
• Characterizing the Performance and Cost-Effectiveness of Energy and Water
Efficiency Measures in Buildings
Lead researchers: Ashlynn Stillwell (CEE) and Philip Krein