On December 16th, 2019, the IEEE PES/IAS Joint chapter Uttar Pradesh section was honored to host Dr. Ram Adapa as part of the Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP). The event was hosted at the electrical engineering department of IIT Kanpur, INDIA. Approximately 20 people attended the event, with more than 80% of student participation. Dr. Ram Adapa presented “The Role of HVDC and Power Electronics in the Future Smart Electric Grid” with a focus on both the distribution and transmission levels. He talked about the large scale installation of many HVDC and power electronics-based FACTS controllers in the T&D networks to realize the smart transmission and distribution network in the near future. This presentation provided the state-of-the-art in HVDC and FACTS technologies and discussed the new applications of HVDC and FACTS and new converter developments such as modular multilevel VSC converters.

From the audience’s perspective, the talks were very engaging and informative, and the speaker presented a holistic view of the operational challenges faced by smart power transmission and distribution. It was a successful event, which introduced and inspired the listeners to address the various exciting challenges of the modern power grid.

Akhilesh Prakash Gupta
Secretary, IEEE PES/IAS Joint Chapter Uttar Pradesh Section