PES DLP: IEEE PES Boise Chapter Hosted Dr. Vahid Madani
Modern Grid Resilience, Sustainability, Protection, and Operation
The Boise Chapter, PE31, of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES), held a very informative presentation on power grid transformation as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP). The topic of the presentation was “Modern Grid Resilience, Sustainability, Protection, and Operation”.
The event was hosted by the Idaho Power Co. (IPC) with the meeting held in the IPC headquarters Auditorium on December 16, 2019. It attracted 34 attendees, with twenty-five (25) PES members and nine (9) IEEE members. IEEE attendees covered academic scientists and graduate students, manufacturing, local research institutions and consultants. Boise is the home to some of the Fortune 500 Companies and the base for Hewlett-Packard (HP), Micron Technology, Simplot, Boise State University and other innovative technology entrepreneurs.
The DLP Event was announced in several ways in addition to traditional methods of posters.
- IEEE VTools for meetings
- IEEE eNotice
- Sent an invite via email to all Idaho Power Engineers
- Social media
Dr. Vahid Madani of GridTology LLC., an internationally recognized speaker, a member of IEEE DLP, a Fellow of IEEE, active member of IEEE Fellows Committee, and a university scholar was the presenter. Refer to the IEEE VTools link https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/209248 for the Boise PE31 DLP and a brief biography of the speaker.
The lecture included challenges in North America and international initiatives in Europe and Southeast Asia, with practical lessons from the obstacles overcome. Reliability and resilience topics were covered with historical encounters and the impending challenges. Impact of renewable resource integration, growth in HVDC / HVAC hybrid and best practices deployed internationally were included in the material presented.
Several spots for attendee engagement were embedded in the presentation to allow for the Q&A on different topics. The information was well received and additional Q&A continued after the completion of the planned lecture. Several people also came forward to personally greet Dr. Madani and thank him for the timely topics he had included for the DLP.
Many favorable feedbacks were provided by the diverse group of attendees, to the host. One of the comments from Sam Lester of HP “The presentation was informative. I learned that the power grid is changing, less power is being consumed in recent years, and that legacy compatibility issues with integration of renewables”. Dr. Thad Welch, of Boise State University, highlighted the value of the topics presented for direction of academic research.
The DLP presentation started with a summary of information and initiatives in the US from conservation and trends in residential and manufacturing sales, to the US Industrial Sector Energy initiatives in Carbon (CO2) Emissions management, the US energy capacity additions and retirements and a summary of key infrastructure sectors in the US, and timing source requirements. Clear citations from various sources were also included with each of the high-level summary. A very good summary of Reliability and Resiliency, comparison between the two definitions as defined by IEEE PES TR-65, and the T&D system risks was covered. Practical examples of vulnerabilities, threats, operational planning to minimize threats were presented, the northern California substation attack in 2013. Other vulnerability topics including natural calamity such as tsunamis, geomagnetic disturbances (GMD), and Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and equipment various substation exposure were discussed. Attendees were encouraged to get a copy of the IEEE PES TR-72 for impact of Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD) to protection systems. The energy transformation, new energy landscape, net generation of renewable energy sources, overgeneration and current utility-scale annual battery installation in the US, the offshore wind power to harness, and the need for transmission system upgrades to accommodate the projection of net generation were covered. Global initiatives in Hybrid HVDC / HVAC to facilitate large scale offshore wind energy into the grid and systems to prevent widespread blackout were also covered with practical examples.
Other related topics such as changing load and risk to reliability, changing dispatching mix, markets for a Power Grid in transition, measures to minimize islanding, sensors, need for precision timing, data mining and machine learning were covered in the context of Smart Grid Technology Roadmap.
The local chapter extends gratitude to esteemed colleague, Dr. Vahid Madani, for his time to prepare the material and for a great delivery of the topics. The Boise Chapter plans to leverage DLP for future Events with informative topics. In light of the technological advancements across the entire PES, the sustainability of the DER, successful Smart Grid integration. With many eyes on PES, the Boise Chapter intends to inform its members of current activities in Standards, Guides, and Technical reports (TR) and continues to remain a conduit between the local chapter and the PES.
Milorad Papic
IEEE Boise Section
PES Boise Chapter