Events Calendar

Distinguished Lecture Series in Energy Informatics

Speaker: Prof. K. Mani Chandy, California Institute of Technology

Talk Title: Uncertain, Intermittent Power: Hurdles in Reaching Pres. Obama's Goal of 80% Renewable Energy by 2035

Series: Distinguished Lecture Series in Energy Informatics

Abstract: Wind and solar power are intermittent whereas gas, coal, and nuclear generation are not.Moreover, we cannot accurately predict the amount of wind and solar power that will be available
minute-by-minute, over the next hour, or even the next day; thus, our predictions are uncertain.
Intermittent power and uncertainty in predictions are fundamental problems in reaching an energy economy based primarily on wind and solar power. This talk describes research at Caltech in collaboration with Cal State Chico on ways of dealing with the intermittent and uncertain nature of wind and solar power. The research deals with methods of mitigating these problems by aggregating power over time by storing power, aggregating power over large geographical regions by investing in transmission, by customer response to supply (demand-response), and by pricing uncertainty. The talk covers several topics briefly and goes into a couple of topics in depth. This work is led at Caltech by Steven Low and at Cal State Chico by Christina Archer.

Biography: K. Mani Chandy is the Simon Ramo Professor and Deputy Chair of
Engineering and Applied Sciences at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, California. His Bachelors is from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering. He was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1970 to 1987, and has been at Caltech since then. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and has received several awards. He does research on distributed systems and systems that sense and respond. He works on applications dealing with earthquakes, radiation detection, healthcare for the disadvantaged, and the smart grid.

Host: Prof. Viktor Prasanna

Location: Henry Salvatori Computer Science Center (SAL) - 101

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Annie Yu