The members of the joint IEEE Power and Energy/Power Electronics/Industry Applications (PES/PELS/IAS) Chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gained valuable leadership experience by organizing and hosting the IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI), held earlier this year in Urbana, Illinois. Founded in 2010, PECI is the oldest annual, student-run international conference […]
Solar decathlon illinois/china competition
At the end of 2015, The U of I Solar Decathlon team was invited to partner with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) for the second Solar Decathlon China sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and China Nat ional Energy Administration 2018 competition, to be held in August 2018 at Dezhou, Shandong Province, China. Twenty-two […]
University of Illinois PELS Chapter Are Prime Movers Outside of the Laboratory
Capturing an oscilloscope screenshot once a converter reaches full-power operation is definitely a memorable moment during graduate school, but the IEEE PES/PELS/IAS student branch chapter at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) works diligently to help members make memories (an impact) outside of the lab as well. During the 2018 spring semester, the chapter […]
UIUC Joint PELS/PES/IAS Chapter Update April 2018
Teaching Community about Power and Energy During UIUC Engineering Open House STEM Outreach Event The UIUC chapter fosters the importance of service for our members by sponsoring several large STEM outreach events. For the last 98 years at UIUC’s Engineering Open House (EOH), the UIUC power and energy group has been teaching the public about […]
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Development for Testing and Monitoring of Distributed Control Algorithms over Emulated AC Microgrids
Oscar Azofeifa with advisor A.Dominguez-Garcia The process of designing and implementing control architectures for distributed generation involves implementing hardware and software tools for their validation. Data visualization is used to detect system failures and show the system performance to correct these failures. In this work, we designed and developed a graphical user interface (GUI) to […]
Hardware in Loop (HIL) Implementation of a Centralized and a Distributed Frequency Regulation Architecture for Islanded Inertia-Less AC Microgrids
Siddhartha Nigam with advisor P.Sauer and A. Dominguez-Garcia Any collection of interconnected generators and loads capable of islanded operation is generally considered a microgrid. It follows, then, that there are no formal restrictions on generator type in a microgrid; however, like the prototypical example of a neighborhood comprising homes with rooftop-mounted photovoltaic arrays, microgrids are […]
Microgrid Distributed Generation Control Over Time-Varying Communication Networks
Madi Zholbaryssov with advisor A.Dominguez-Garcia Integrating microgrids into the bulk power grid has become an innovative and effective strategy for mitigating a variety of problems ranging from greenhouse gas emissions, power-grid resilience and reliability, to providing low-cost and uninterruptible power supply for mission-critical systems. One problem associated with this integration is achieving a resilient and […]
A data-driven framework for coordinating the response of DERs to Provide Grid Support Services
Hanchen Xu with advisor P.Sauer and A.Dominguez-Garcia Extensive research in developing DER coordination schemes for active and reactive power control could lead to effective frequency and voltage regulation — if there were accurate system models. Given that up-to-date operating conditions and system topology are usually unavailable, DER coordination schemes, robust against model errors, are yet […]
A hierarchy of models for distributed energy resources (DERs)
Olaoluwapo Ajala with advisor A.Dominguez-Garcia As adoption of DERS has accelerated, there is a need to develop comprehensive mathematical tools to model these systems. Models used by control engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and other non-experts in the field of microgrids are required for the analysis and control tasks necessary to develop innovative technologies. For example, to design […]
Race to Zero
A group of around 25 Illinois Solar Decathlon students began meeting in September 2017 to prepare a submission to the Race to Zero Competition hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Energy. This competition is for college student teams to develop a building design that produces more […]