Events Calendar

EE 598 Cyber-Physical Systems Seminar Series

Speaker: Laith Shalalfeh, PhD Candidate, University of Southern California

Talk Title: Early-Warning Signals to Power System Blackouts

Abstract: The rapid deployment of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) can keep the smart grid in a secure and reliable state. The large amount of data collected from the power grid by PMUs requires new algorithms to detect abnormal and potentially catastrophic events. In this presentation, we introduce a novel method to assess the distance to blackout or other instability of the smart grid. Based on the existence of long-range correlation in the PMU data, we exhibit an increase in the frequency Hurst exponent before the blackout. The increase in the Hurst exponent is quantified by Kendall rank correlation coefficient, which is known as Kendall's tau. High Kendall's tau of the frequency Hurst exponent is proposed as an early-warning signal for power system blackout.

Biography: Laith Shalalfeh is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering department at the University of Southern California. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Jordan in 2009, and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2012. His research interests include electric vehicles, load modeling, voltage collapse, smart grid, and phasor measurement units.

Host: Paul Bogdan

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

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Estela Lopez