Power System Protection in the Era of Smart Grid : vTools Events

Advances in sensing, communication and computing have potential to refine, or even redefine the conception and implementation of Power System Protection. Increased computing power at low cost has provided opportunities to implement more computation-intensive methods/algorithms in real time. Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) providing faster and diverse synchronized measurements over a wide area, with new communication options arepart of the emerging technology. These advances can be the potential enablers of new paradigms in Protection. At the same time, penetration of widespread current-limited renewable resources has disrupted some fundamental assumptions on which protection has been designed over the years. This talk will provide an overview of the state of the art and review challenges, promises, and conception of the changing protection paradigm in smart grid.

EDUCATION

Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, August 2003
Master of Technology, Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, 1997
Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India, 1989

KEY EMPLOYMENT POSITIONS

Dominion Energy Distinguished Professor, Holcombe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, August 2018 onward.
William Kersting Endowed Chair Professor, Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, August 2018 .
William Kersting Endowed Chair Associate Professor, Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, January 2014 – July 2018.
Associate Professor, Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, August 2012 – July 2018.
Associate Director, Electric Utility Management Program, Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, August 2009 – February 2018.
Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University, July 2007 – July 2012.
Tenure-track Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Widener University, September 2003 – June 2007.
Lecturer, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, B.V.M College of Engineering, Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, India, December 1990 – August 1999.
Trainee / Assistant Engineer, Ahmedabad Electricity Company, Ahmedabad, India, August 1989 – December 1990.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP AND SERVICE POSITIONS

Fellow, IEEE – citation: for contributions to power system protection with distributed and renewable generation.
Member IEEE PES – Power System Analysis Computation and Economics (PSACE) Committee; Past Chair, Distribution System Analysis Subcommittee.
Past Chair IEEE PES – Power and Energy Education Committee; Past Chair, Lifelong Learning Subcommittee.
Member, IEEE PES Power System Relaying and Control Committee.
Member of 15 Working Groups of IEEE PES Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRC); Chair, Working Group C24 – Modification of Commercial Fault Calculation Programs for Wind Turbine Generators.
Editor, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery
Guest Editor in Chief, EEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Special Issue on Frontiers of Power System protection, 2015.
Technical Reviewer for major Power Systems journals, conferences and NSF panels.

AWARDS/HONORS

Elected Fellow of IEEE, 2020.
IEEE PES Distinguished Lecturer, February 2019 onward.
Outstanding Engineer Award, IEEE PES Piedmont Section, USA, 2020.
Advisory Board Member, Idaho National Laboratory, 2020-2022.
Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), 2020.
Dominion Energy Distinguished Professor, Clemson University, August 2018 onward.
William Kersting Endowed Chair in Power System Engineering from New Mexico State University – October 2014 – August 2018.
Received Donald C. Roush Award for Excellence in Teaching from New Mexico State University in Spring 2016.
Elected Member of the main committee of IEEE Power System Relaying and Control Committee (PSRCC), January 2016.
Best Paper Runner-up Award– Realistic Microgrid Test Bed for Protection and Resiliency Studies, North American Power Symposium (NAPS) 2019, October 2019, Wichita, KS.
PES Technical Committee WG recognition award – Fault Contributions from Wind Plants, 2016 – WG member.
PES Technical Committee WG recognition award, 2015 – Technical Report: Use of Synchrophasor Measurements in Protective Relaying Applications, 2014 – WG member.
PES Technical Committee Prize Paper Award – IEEE PSRC Working Group K15, “Advancements in Centralized Protection and Control within a Substation,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery – Vol. 31- 4, pp. 1945 – 1952, August 2016 – WG member.
IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery Best Paper Award – IEEE PSRC Working Group K15, “Advancements in Centralized Protection and Control within a Substation,” IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery – Vol. 31- 4, pp. 1945 – 1952, August 2016 – WG member.
PES WG recognition award – Outstanding Technical Report for Joint WG (PSRC and Substations Committee): IEEE C37.240 Standard Cybersecurity Requirements for Substation Automation, Protection, and Control Systems – WG member.
Exceptional Reviewer Award, 2016 – IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery.