Events Calendar

Power Grid Voltage Stability and Distributed Control

Speaker: John W. Simpson-Porco, University of California Santa Barbara

Talk Title: Power Grid Voltage Stability and Distributed Control

Abstract: Technological and regulatory advances are driving the transition of the electric power grid from a hierarchical, centrally-managed physical system to a decentralized cyber-physical system. While distributed generation and demand response offer lower carbon emissions and energy costs, the deployment of these technologies is increasingly eroding the already thin stability margins of our aging power delivery infrastructure.

This talk addresses these technological challenges in two parts. We first present distributed controllers for frequency and voltage regulation in inverter-based islanded power grids. Our physically intuitive control strategies fuse classic power systems intuition with ideas from multi-agent systems, resulting in plug-and-play, provably stable designs. Under minimal connectivity requirements, communication among the inverter units allows for the recovery of centralized control performance using only localized measurements. We present theoretical and experimental results validating our designs.

In the second part of the talk, we explore more deeply the fundamental properties of AC power flow. Despite decades of research, little analytical understanding exists regarding the solution space of these crucial nonlinear equations, leaving exhaustive numerics as the only reliable option to assess grid operability. Here we present a sharp, closed-form condition which guarantees the existence of a unique high-voltage power flow equilibrium. Our key idea is to explicitly combine the complex structure of the network with the size and locations of power demands, leading to sharp estimates of grid voltage stability margins. We highlight applications of our condition to on-line voltage stability assessment and stability margin-enhancing feedback control.


Biography: John W. Simpson-Porco is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. He received his B.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from Queen's University in 2010. Mr. Simpson-Porco is a recipient the Automatica Best Paper Prize, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Fellowship, and the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation Outstanding Scholar Fellowship. His research interests are centered on the stability and control of multi-agent systems and complex dynamic networks, with a focus on modernized electric power grids.

Host: Petros Ioannou, ioannou@usc.edu, EEB 200B, x04452

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos